Science & technology | Epigenetic inheritance

A strange case of intergenerational memory

Nematode progeny “remember” bacteria encountered by a parent

Feb 26th 2022

CHARLES DARWIN did not invent the idea of evolution. But he did come up with the currently accepted explanation, natural selection, in which heritable characteristics arise by chance and are retained if competition shows them to be useful. Natural selection’s success overthrew an earlier idea proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a French natural historian. Lamarck had suggested that characteristics acquired by experience during an organism’s lifetime might somehow become heritable.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “The worm’s turn”