Acquired Characteristics May Be Inheritable

A story from a week or so back in Technology Review describes research coming to the surprising conclusion that Jean-Baptiste Lamarck may have been right — that acquired characteristics can be passed on to offspring, at least in rodents. Lamarck's ideas have been controversial for 200 years, and dismissed in mainstream scientific thinking for nearly that long. "In Feig's study, mice genetically engineered to have memory problems were raised in an enriched environment — given toys, exercise, and social interaction — for two weeks during adolescence. The animals' memory improved... The mice were then returned to normal conditions, where they grew up and had offspring. This next generation of mice also had better memory, despite having the genetic defect and never having been exposed to the enriched environment."

Comments

Re:Interesting...

[ultranova]

What? I've heard Larmarck's evolutionary ideas ridiculed but villified?
He wasn't that unscientific. He was just wrong.

Actually he was right. You inherited your native language from your parents and will pass it on to your children, but don't have any English/Spanish/Mandarin/whatever genes. Language is an inheritable acquired trait, as is all culture.

Or are you thinking of Lysenko? Now that particular advocate of inherited-acquired-characteristics was indeed a villain, a lousy scientist and a political tool.

From what I've heard of him, it seems likely that he was simply insane in the sees-things way, and used as a tool by Stalin's regime.