Helen Fisher

Biological Anthropologist, Rutgers University; Author, Why Him? Why Her? How to Find and Keep Lasting Love

Excerpt 1:  To me, epigenetics is the most monumental explanation to emerge in the social and biological sciences since Darwin proposed his theories of Natural Selection and Sexual Selection.

Excerpt 2:  I am hardly the first to hail this new field of biology as revolutionary—the fundamental process by which nature and nurture interact. But to me as an anthropologist long trying to take a middle road in a scientific discipline intractably immersed in nature-versus-nurture warfare, epigenetics is the missing link.

This is what Helen Fisher wrote about the book I co-authored with Robert Francoeur, which was published in 1995 and in 2002.

“This is science at its best, with adventure, ideas, and lots of facts… You will never look at your lover or your family the same way again.” –Helen Fisher, Ph.D., author of “The Anatomy of Love”

Here are links to the last two review articles on epigenetics that I published:

Kohl, J.V. (2012) Human pheromones and food odors: epigenetic influences on the socioaffective nature of evolved behaviors. Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology, 2: 17338.

Here’s a link to a forthcoming conference April 11 & 12, 2014, which includes information on the speakers and what they will discuss.

The goal of the conference is to investigate the interface between epigenetic research and the emotional process of the human family. It will explore the regulation of genetic expression by the social environment as well as the imprint of family relationships on the social and emotional functioning of each family member, including genetic expression.

If the stated goal of the conference is achieved, it will help to move science forward by linking epigenetic effects of the sensory environment from the epigenetic landscape to the physical landscape of DNA in the organized genome of species from microbes to man via the conserved molecular mechanisms that explain how food odors and pheromones link morphological and behavioral phenotypes.