Hayasaki, Erika. “Identical Twins Hint at How Environments Change Gene Expression.

” ​The
Atlantic​, Atlantic Media Company, 17 May 2018,
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/twin-epigenetics/560189/ Accessed
11 Oct 2018.
The article is about epigenetics in correspondence to diseases and twins. Hayasaki who is
an associate professor for the University of California, Berkley has twins of her own,
which sparked her curiosity about how they were so different. Leading her to find Nancy
Segal who is a behavioral geneticist that specializes in studies of twins in respect to their
genetics and her studies are the focus of this article. Throughout the article it focuses on
different sets of twins and how the studies that Segal has done with them, the first of
which being the Hoffman twins. Monica and Erika are identical twins who are currently
being studied by Segal, because they are identical they have the same DNA and gene
structure, however, Monica was diagnosed with breast cancer and her twin on the other
hand is cancer free. After analyzing their genes, neither twin was carrying or have a
mutated gene that would activate the disease. The article carries on to numerous stories,
including the Genain twins who were quadruplets that were all diagnosed with
schizophrenia but they all had different symptoms of schizophrenia. Segal found two sets
of separated at birth twins, one of which being identical and the other only fraternal. Both
of the separated twins had extremely different environments growing up, and through
analyzing the methylation patterns of the twins, it was found that the identical pair had
the same patterns while the fraternal twins had different patterns.
Erika Hayasaki is an associate professor at The University of California, Berkley The
author chose this topic for her article because of her young twins and their differences.
Her information is reliable, all of the studies mentioned are public and people have access
to them, she summarizes multiple occurrences in which epigenetics are widely covered.
Segal which most of the article is based off of is a well respected geneticist with a Ph.D
from the University of Chicago, is a member of the American Psychology Association, as
well has won awards for his studies on twins and genetics. The Atlantic general audience
are higher educated individuals with intentions to expand on inquiry of any topic,
improving its credibility.
This article will be a fantastic resource for my extended inquiry project because of how
simple the article is in regards to epigenetics, which is quite a comprehensive topic. The
text includes many examples of twins, the most useful type of study for epigenetics since
they share the same DNA rather than being siblings with different but similar DNA. The
source helped me shape my argument by providing information about environmental
factors and their effectiveness on humans with the exception of identical twins. The
article does point out a difficult point to get past, which is the difference between
correlation and causation in respects to epigenetics it is a difficult issue involved with the
topic that is a challenge no matter the source being faced.
Lipton, Bruce. “Bruce Lipton, PhD: The Jump From Cell Culture to Consciousness.” ​Integrative
Medicine (Encinitas, Calif.)​, InnoVision Health Media Inc., Dec. 2017,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6438088/ Accessed 11 Oct 2018.
In this scientific journal Dr Lipton who is a pioneer in epigenetics, tells his story with the
research he has done and why he decided to focus on it. When he was doing his research on
cloning stem cells, at the same time he was also teaching in medical school. Genetic determinism
was, at the time, a prevailing belief in science—the belief that genes are capable of turning
themselves on and off and regulating not just our physical structure, but human emotions and
human behaviors as well. Genes seem to be the controlling factor of all characteristics of people's
lives. Everyone attributed to them, at that time, the character of self-actualization, meaning that
genes can turn themselves on and off.
What Lipton was actually teaching these students, is that genes are controlling their lives. As far
as humans know, they did not pick the genes that were given to them. If people do not like the
characteristics they have, they cannot change the genes. That leaves them with an unfortunate
conclusion: People are victims of our heredity. Essentially meaning that if there is a history of
cancer in an individual's family well, anticipate that their gene for cancer is going to affect them.
This creates the belief that humans are powerless in controlling our biology, because the genes
control it by turning on and off, and individuals have no control over them.
Lipton finds this to be the leading cause as to why many people seek, a medical doctor, a
pharmaceutical agency, or other professional care that will take care of them. That is what we are
teaching. Lipton at the time he focused his teachings on that belief, he was also doing work on
cloning stem cells. Stem cells is just another term for embryonic cell. The moment a human is
born, they are no longer an embryo, that is when Lipton then refers to the embryonic cell to a
stem cell. A stem cell is an embryonic cell in the body of a person who is born.
Lipton emphasizes that on a daily basis, people lose hundreds of billions of cells from normal
attrition: dying, old-age, damaged, or other health problems with them. Humans have to replace
the cells. Lipton wants to use stem cells and epigenetics as a way to improve individuals quality
of life, by allowing them to know the factors that affect gene expression.
Bruce H. Lipton, PhD, cell biologist and lecturer, is an internationally recognized leader in
epigenetics. Bruce was on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and
later performed groundbreaking stem cell research at Stanford Medical School. His industry
leading research on cloned human stem cells lead to today’s revolutionary new field of
epigenetics. He is the bestselling author of ​The Biology of Belief​ and​ The Honeymoon Effect​, and
he is the coauthor, with Steve Bhaerman, of ​Spontaneous Evolution.​ Bruce received the
prestigious Goi Peace Award in honor of his scientific contribution to world harmony. All of his
credibility in the field shows him to be one of the most trusted sources I could use.
The article is from an established website made from an organization of scientists whose goals
are to expand on inquiry in science.

Byrnes, Malcolm W. “The Forgotten Father of Epigenetics.” ​American Scientist​, 15 Jan. 2018,
https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-forgotten-father-of-epigenetics. ​(Access Date)
This informational website’s article shows the importance of the inclusion of multiple cultural
views, contributed to the discovery of Epigenetics. The article begins by giving the background
of E.E. Just, who was an African American embryologist struggling to get his ideas valued in
the science community. In 2010 a study was conducted and found that only 5 percent of African
Americans work in science and engineering departments. Since Just as African American, he
faced multiple challenges on his journey to success. For example African Americans were not
able to obtain positions in research-based universities so Just failed to have a community of
students around him. Also because of these reasons, his peers were unlikely going to cite his
work, making it harder for him to gain credibility and acknowledgement. E.E Just had many
different views than the science community around him, which made it even harder for him to
state his ideas. During the first half of the 20th century, racial propagnda and discrimination was
everywhere. Famous philosopher Locke states that our society will completely succeed when
everyone begins to accept all ethnic groups and cultural beliefs. E.E. Justs main goal of his
research was to explain the mystery of differentiation, which is how the cells arise in the
developing embryo. In his experiment he showed how nuclear material increased while in the
nuclear cleavage process. Eventually he stated his theory that the differentiation of the egg
during cleavage because of a genetic restriction of potencies, becoming the study of Epigenetics.
The publication the American Scientist is a trustworthy source because its pieces are done by
prominent scientists in their respective fields. The author is an associate professor of
biochemistry and molecular biology at Howard University. The source is an academic source by
scientists with intentions of expanding on inquiry in their fields. The purpose of the writing is to
highlight the importance of diversified research and its importance in the development of the
field of epigenetics.The intended audience is for scientists and higher educated individuals. This
source is useful, however, it does not hold as much information as the other sources in the field
of epigenetics.
This article is a good resource for my paper because it goes into the history of epigenetics and
can be used for background information. With epigenetics being such a complicated topic,
providing a detailed background for other readers will be essential to creating a sufficient paper.
That is how I plan on using this source.

Comments:
Gina: The first summary is well thought out, just check grammar. Also, don’t separate the ideas
into paragraphs for any of the sources. Make sure to mention possible biases, like for the first
one the author may be biased because she has twins. Check that you need commas where you
have them too. The sources were well done.

Bailey: The first annotation is thorough. Some sentences seemed a little long and maybe could be
split into two. Are there any biases? Source is well done. It is a good start and provides a great
summary to be able to find information to write about. The studies you provided as a good
background and explains who people are as well.