Epigenetics--the study of internal and environmental factors that affect how genes are turned on or off and how cells read those genes--is a rapidly emerging science akin to genetics that introduces a number of novel and unexpected biological explanations of human origins and development. It also poses fundamental challenges to many of the assumptions of the prevailing science of genetics. When science changes, how does public policy respond?

This book comprehensively considers the political implications of the emerging science of epigenetics in specific policy domains,...