Science Questions

Do scientists have any understanding of the mechanisms that skills, that animals such as humans, learn and pass to their offspring via their genetic code? Wyel in Dubai

That's a very difficult question to answer. I'm not aware of there being any evidence for learning of particular skills then becoming hard wired in the DNA. This was a theory that was quite popular in the early twentieth century that perhaps things could get hard wired into the DNA, but I'm not sure there is a mechanism for that to occur.

July 2006