The Ghost in Your Genes

The scientists who believe your genes are shaped in part by your ancestors' life experiences.

Biology stands on the brink of a shift in the understanding of inheritance.
The discovery of epigenetics – hidden influences upon the genes – could affect every aspect of our lives.

At the heart of this new field is a simple but contentious idea – that genes have a 'memory'. That the lives of your grandparents – the air they breathed, the food they ate, even the things they saw – can directly affect you, decades later, despite your never experiencing these things yourself. And that what you do in your lifetime could in turn affect your grandchildren.

The conventional view is that DNA carries all our heritable information and that nothing an individual does in their lifetime will be biologically passed to their children. To many scientists, epigenetics amounts to a heresy, calling into question the accepted view of the DNA sequence – a cornerstone on which modern biology sits.
Epigenetics adds a whole new layer to genes beyond the DNA. It proposes a control system of 'switches' that turn genes on or off – and suggests that things people experience, like nutrition and stress, can control these switches and cause heritable effects in humans.

In a remote town in northern Sweden there is evidence for this radical idea. Lying in Överkalix's parish registries of births and deaths and its detailed harvest records is a secret that confounds traditional scientific thinking. Marcus Pembrey, a Professor of Clinical Genetics at the Institute of Child Health in London, in collaboration with Swedish researcher Lars Olov Bygren, has found evidence in these records of an environmental effect being passed down the generations. They have shown that a famine at critical times in the lives of the grandparents can affect the life expectancy of the grandchildren. This is the first evidence that an environmental effect can be inherited in humans.

In other independent groups around the world, the first hints that there is more to inheritance than just the genes are coming to light. The mechanism by which this extraordinary discovery can be explained is starting to be revealed.
Professor Wolf Reik, at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, has spent years studying this hidden ghost world. He has found that merely manipulating mice embryos is enough to set off 'switches' that turn genes on or off.

For mothers like Stephanie Mullins, who had her first child by in vitro fertilisation, this has profound implications. It means it is possible that the IVF procedure caused her son Ciaran to be born with Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome – a rare disorder linked to abnormal gene expression. It has been shown that babies conceived by IVF have a three- to four-fold increased chance of developing this condition.
And Reik's work has gone further, showing that these switches themselves can be inherited. This means that a 'memory' of an event could be passed through generations. A simple environmental effect could switch genes on or off – and this change could be inherited.

His research has demonstrated that genes and the environment are not mutually exclusive but are inextricably intertwined, one affecting the other.
The idea that inheritance is not just about which genes you inherit but whether these are switched on or off is a whole new frontier in biology. It raises questions with huge implications, and means the search will be on to find what sort of environmental effects can affect these switches.

After the tragic events of September 11th 2001, Rachel Yehuda, a psychologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, studied the effects of stress on a group of women who were inside or near the World Trade Center and were pregnant at the time. Produced in conjunction with Jonathan Seckl, an Edinburgh doctor, her results suggest that stress effects can pass down generations. Meanwhile research at Washington State University points to toxic effects – like exposure to fungicides or pesticides – causing biological changes in rats that persist for at least four generations.

This work is at the forefront of a paradigm shift in scientific thinking. It will change the way the causes of disease are viewed, as well as the importance of lifestyles and family relationships. What people do no longer just affects themselves, but can determine the health of their children and grandchildren in decades to come. "We are," as Marcus Pembrey says, "all guardians of our genome."

begitulah penemuan saintis di eropah, dan di dunia yang tidak mempercayai Muhammad SAW. sedangkan al Quran hadis nabi SAW itu adalah petunjuk untuk yang mahu bertaqwa.

bagi Umat Islam pula, tahu menyebut ayat al Quran, dan hadis TETAPI tidak tahu apa sebenarnya hakikat isi ceritanya. lalu bersangka sangka. SUBHANALLAH

mari kita cuba perhatikan, dan kajilah sendiri, semuga Allah memelihara dirimu, kebenaran itu daripada Allah

berikut adalah ringkasan hadis, perkataan nabi, yang pernah di sebutnya

قَالً رَسُوْلُ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ يَجْرِى مِنِ ابْنِ آدَمَ مَجْرَى الدَّمِ.

(رَوَاهُ الْبُخَارِى وَمُسْلِمٌ

Sabda Nabi SAW.: Sesungguhnya syaitan berjalan dalam tubuh manusia sebagaimana perjalanan darah. (HR. Bukhari dan Muslim)

قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: إِنَّ فِى الْجَسَدِ مُضْغَةٌ ، إِذَا صََلُحَتْ صَلُحَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ ، وَإِذَا فَسَدَتْ فَسَدَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ أَلاَ وَهِىَ الْقَلْبُ.

(رَوَاهُ الْبُخَارِى وَمُسْلِمٌ)

Sabda Nabi SAW.: Sesungguhnya di dalam tubuh (manusia) ada seketul daging, jika dia baik maka baiklah seluruh tubuhnya, dan jika dia rosak maka akan rosaklah seluruh tubuhnya, ketahuilah bahawa dialah HATI. (HR. Bukhari dan Muslim)

SYARAH AL HADIS:

Al Hafisz Ibnu Hajar Al 'Asqalaany berkata: Hadis diatas (no.1) boleh diertikan bahawa syaitan berjalan di dalam tubuh manusia secara zahir kerana Allah mampu berbuat demikian. Dan boleh juga jika diertikan secara kiasan kerana syaitan senantiasa ingin berdampingan dengan manusia. Mereka tidak mahu berpisah dari manusia sebagaimana kedudukan dan peranan darah. Jadi syaitan disamakan dengan darah kerana hubungan kedua-duanya yang sangat rapat dengan manusia.

Ibnu Abbas berkata: Syaitan akan menyelinap ke dalam hati manusia jika dia sedang lupa, lalai dan was-was. Tetapi jika ia ingat kepada Allah maka syaitan pun akan pergi.

Dari keterangan diatas jelaslah bahawa syaitan dapat menyelinap kedalam tubuh manusia. Oleh itu, dia pilih "hati" sebagai markasnya kerana peranan hati sangat menentukan pergerakan manusia. Segala gerak-gerik anggota manusia adalah atas arahan hatinya. Jika "iman" seseorang menguasai hatinya maka ia akan menjadi manusia yang baik. Tetapi jika sebaliknya "syaitan" yang menguasainya maka ia akan menjadi manusia yang jahat.

Atas sebab itulah maka Rasul bersabda: Sesungguhnya dalam tubuh manusia ada seketul daging. Jika dia baik maka akan baiklah seluruh tubuhnya. Dan jika dia rosak maka akan rosaklah seluruh tubuhnya, ketahuilah bahawa dialah hati.

Syaitan adalah musuh kita yang paling utama. Dialah punca segala bentuk kerusakan dan kejahatan diatas muka bumi ini. Oleh itu kita wajib membentengi hati kita denqan Iman atau Akidah yanq kukuh lagi mantap berdasarkan Al Quran dan Hadis Nabi yanq sahih. Dan selain itu kerana syaitan sangat pakar dalam menipu, maka kita juga perlu mengetahui bagaimana cara syaitan menyesatkan umat manusia.

Semoga dengan banyak mengetahui bagaimana cara dia menyesatkan manusia maka kita akan selalu waspada terhadap tipu muslihatnya.

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SUBHANALLAAH