The Many Faces of EpigeneticsOxford, December 2017

Abstract

The conference 'The Many Faces of Epigenetics: Multidisciplinary Perspectives "over" Genetics' was held in Oxford (6-8 December 2017) and offered a valuable window into the domain of Epigenetics and its promises. The workshop revealed that, among a wealth of discourses about Epigenetics, it is not so easy to decipher which discourses are to be trusted. Because Epigenetics is a rather old notion that has generated many debates and promises, defining precisely what has changed and where we are currently is a challenge in itself. Interestingly, the conference allowed debates beyond statements such as 'If you don't know the cause, you say it's epigenetic' (Deichmann 2016), pointing out that the lack of a precise definition of Epigenetics was no hindrance to the discussions. Finally, it highlighted the grounds of (dis)agreement among communities of natural and social scientists; but eventually the discussions showed that epigenetic tools open the path to new topics and challenges that are awaiting us.

Keywords: Epigenetics; definition; environment; explanatory tools; molecular tools; society.

Figure 1.

Word cloud built from the written answers to the survey (by using www.wordclouds.com).

Figure 2.

Words defining Epigenetics (built using Xmind 8). Depicted in blue are the common words to all disciplines, and in orange are those that attracted more attention.