Heredity, Epigenetics, and Genetic Engineering in the Context of Life

The Nature Institute's contextual, qualitative approach to the study of organisms and heredity reveals the broader story of an organism, its interplay with the environment, and its relation to human society, vividly illustrating the limitations and dangers of single-target technological “solutions” to complex problems. Through our scientific research, publications, educational activities, and international collaborations with colleagues, we raise awareness of the limitations of a gene-centered understanding of life. During the past decades ever more research has corroborated and made clear in detail what we have discovered in our phenomenological studies — that heredity is something fluid and highly contextual. It is not a matter of the transmission of discrete genes that cause traits to appear.

Below we provide links to publications that address heredity in a broad sense, consider the implications of modern research concerning epigenetics, and provide a holistic context for assessing the impact of genetic technologies on life.

Biology Worthy of Life

The papers and resources gathered here are part of an ongoing project by Stephen L. Talbott to reconsider the nature of the organism in light of recent discoveries in genetics, epigenetics, and molecular biology generally. The emerging picture could hardly differ more from the received — and still generally advertised — one. It is a picture of irreducible holism. Visit our adjunct website featuring Steve’s work, Biology Worthy of Life.

Unintended Effects of Genetic Manipulation

In this project, between 2008 and 2019, we distilled in conveniently accessible form the results of a wide-ranging survey of the technical literature on the unintended and unexpected results of genetic manipulations on different kinds of organisms. Genetic engineering aims to effect discrete and predictable changes in living beings, but in fact the results for the organism and its environment almost always include unpredictable effects. The purpose of this project was to make evidence about the wide-ranging and never wholly predictable effects of genetic engineering readily accessible to concerned citizens, policy makers, and scientists. Visit Unintended Effects of Genetic Manipulation.

Publications: Genes in a Larger Context

Books

Beyond Biotechnology: The Barren Promise of Genetic Engineering
By Craig Holdrege and Steve Talbott (University of Kentucky Press, 2008)
Reviewing this “insightful new book” in Nature Biotechnology, biologist and philosopher of science, Lenny Moss, writes that he would “strongly encourage the adoption of this book as core reading for all incoming biotechnology, bioethics and philosophy of biology students.”

Genetics and the Manipulation of Life: The Forgotten Factor of Context
By Craig Holdrege (Lindisfarne Books, 1996)
David Suzuki, co-author of Genethics, said that “all budding geneticists, indeed, all biologists, ought to read this important work.” Wes Jackson, President Emeritus of the Land Institute, wrote, “I am tempted to shout that this may be the most essential new book of our time.” And Lynn Margulis, co-developer of the Gaia hypothesis, remarked that the author cuts “through hype and nonsense to the crux of the matter — that our fundamental humanity develops in context.” This book has been translated into German and French; it is out of print but available as a free download on our website.

Articles

“Genes and the Single Organism”
By Stephen L. Talbott (2021)
Organisms are coherent, qualitative, story-telling wholes that inform and define their own parts. Being so informed, the parts share in each other’s identity and become inseparable features of a larger unity. Have biologists in our day lost sight of the whole organism because of their fixation upon the molecular parts known as genes?

“All Genetics is Epigenetics”
By Stephen L. Talbott (2019)
Nothing is merely genetic; every so-called genetic activity is an expression of its entire context, and therefore is altogether epigenetic. Providing a variety of examples, this article shows that the abstraction of genetics from the rest of the organism has distorted biology on an epic scale.  

“DNA and the Whole Organism”
By Stephen L. Talbott (2015)  
An attempt to show the place of DNA within the context of the cell and organism as integral unities. A key lesson: the organism knows what it is doing with its DNA.

“Manipulating the Genome of Human Embryos: Some Unforeseen Effects”
By Craig Holdrege (2015)
An assessment of the first attempts to edit the genomes of human embryos using the latest and most sophisticated gene editing techniques. The ethical issues have been widely noted and — as far as the technology is concerned — we again find that the thing to expect most is the unexpected.

“When Engineers Take Hold of Life: Synthetic Biology”
By Craig Holdrege (2014)
What happens when genetic engineers, becoming yet more ambitious, begin to envision the synthesis of altogether new life forms, using Lego block-like “BioBricks”? The ambition may be foolish, but huge resources are now being devoted to it, with grave implications for the biological future.

“Plasticity, Stability, and Whole-Organism Inheritance”
By Stephen L. Talbott (2013)
The development of complex organisms tells a dramatic story about the plasticity of DNA in the “hands” of the whole cell and whole organism. The story of development is first of all a story — a narrative with intention and direction — not merely a series of physical causes and effects.

“From Mechanistic to Organismal Biology”
By E. S. Russell (2013)
 An excerpt from marine biologist E. S. Russell’s 1930 book, The Interpretation of Development and Heredity: A Study in Biological Method, which contains some remarkably up-to-date understanding of what a whole-organism biology would look like. In this excerpt, the author begins with the provocative assertion: “Biology occupies a unique and privileged position among the sciences in that its object, the living organism, is known to us not only objectively through sensory perception, but also in one case directly, as the subject of immediate experience. It is therefore possible, in this special case of one’s own personal life, to take an inside view of a living organism.”

“Science’s Forbidden Question: Is Anyone There?”
By Craig Holdrege and Stephen L. Talbott (2007)
 This article looks at the tension between biological science, which considers and manipulates life and living organisms as complex mechanisms, and the general human perception that animals and plants are creatures in their own right.

“The Gene: A Needed Revolution”
By Craig Holdrege (2005)
 The history of the concept of the gene dramatically belies the contemporary rhetoric that treats the gene as a fixed, well-defined thing that controls the organism and makes it what it is. Here the evolving concept of the gene is traced through the words of many of those who played a central role in elucidating the concept.

“Logic, DNA, and Poetry”
By Stephen L. Talbott (2005)
 Both artificial intelligence researchers and geneticists have attempted to understand the word — text, message, information, transcript, code, signal — as if it were a matter of mechanized logic. And both disciplines have suffered embarrassment as a result. But with their compulsive appeals to word and text, code and message, geneticists may have glimpsed more truth than they are currently willing to acknowledge. When they finally reckon with the actual nature of the genetic word, they may find their entire discipline transformed.

“Life Beyond Genes: Reflections on the Human Genome Project”
By Craig Holdrege and Johannes Wirz (2001)
 More than showing that genes determine life, the human genome project and other advances in genetics show that the organism itself determines what genes are and do.

“Genes and Life: The Need for Qualitative Understanding”
By Craig Holdrege (1999)  
Reflections on the question, “Which of our genes make us human?” None of them and all of them. The question, it turns out, betrays a grave misunderstanding of genes and people.

“What Forms an Animal?”
By Craig Holdrege (2001)
 An animal is formed by more than the interaction of genes and environment, as this article about lions and their skulls illustrates.

“Genes Are Not Immune to Context: Examples from Bacteria”
By Craig Holdrege (2004)
 The “lowly” bacteria are among our best instructors in the high art of genetic flexibility and adaptation. What we've been learning about bacteria illustrates the fact that the organism, along with its environment, provides the context that gives genes their meaning.

Publications: Genetic Engineering & Agriculture

See also our project on the Unintended Effects of Genetic Manipulation, which deals with many genetically engineered crops.

“Of Weeds, Milkweed, and Monarchs”
By Craig Holdrege (2014) 
Genetically modified crops designed to endure herbicides now occupy great swaths of the American heartland. This may be good news for the manufacturers of the herbicides, but it does not look like good news for the monarch butterflies that must navigate through this heartland to their overwintering sites in Mexico. Monarch numbers have been declining in apparent synchrony with the increasing use of herbicides.

“Understanding the Unintended Effects of Genetic Manipulation — An Introduction”
By Craig Holdrege (2008) 
This article provides essential background information about unintended effects. What do we mean by unintended effects? How are these effects detected? What are the different categories of unintended effects

“Will Biotech Feed the World? The Broader Context”
By Craig Holdrege (2005)
This article describes the broader ecological, agricultural, and social context of feeding the hungry. The often heard claim that biotechnology is needed to feed the world's growing population shows itself to be rooted more in hype than in reality.

“Should Genetically Modified Foods Be Labeled?”
By Craig Holdrege (2002) 
An in-depth article covering FDA food-labeling policies and presenting a cogent argument for the mandatory labeling of GM food.

“Sowing Technology”
By Craig Holdrege and Stephen L. Talbott (2001) 
This article discusses current developments in agricultural biotechnology within an ecological context and shows the pitfalls of this approach to revolutionizing agriculture. A version of this article appeared in Sierra (July/August 2001).

“Golden Genes and World Hunger: Let Them Eat Transgenic Rice?”
By Craig Holdrege and Stephen L. Talbott (2000) 
You may have heard that genetically engineered crops will enable us to feed the millions of hungry people on the planet. This article, which focuses on carotene-enriched rice, shows the shortsightedness of seeking purely technological fixes to complex issues.

“The Trouble with Genetically Modified Crops”
By Craig Holdrege (2004)
 This 2004 article describes some negative consequences of eight years of commercial GM agriculture: the case of Percy Schmeiser, the contamination of our seed supply, and increasing pest resistance.

“From Wonder Bread to GM Lettuce”
By Craig Holdrege (2004)
 “Nutrient-enhanced” GM food may soon be with us. What illusions and dangers are associated with this modern form of “wonder” foods?

“Pharming the Cow”
By Craig Holdrege (1997) 
Is the cow a complex genetic mechanism that we can manipulate at will for human ends, or is it an organism with its own integrity that warrants our respect? This article exemplifies the power of a holistic, contextual approach to tackle complex issues of technology and animal welfare.