Musings and What-not

According to Dictionary.com, the definitions for schizophrenia and autism are as follows.  There are other sites that offer more in-depth definitions, but I don't want to lose you which is why I chose shorter ones.: Schizophrenia Psychiatry . Also called dementia praecox. a severe mental disorder characterized by some, but not necessarily all, of the following features: emotional blunting, intellectual deterioration, social isolation, disorganized speech and behavior, delusions, and hallucinations. Autism Psychiatry . a pervasive developmental disorder of children, characterized by impaired communication, excessive rigidity, and emotional detachment. Allow me to examine some of the words provided in each definition. Schizophrenia: Blunting: Slow to understand or perceive; dull. Deterioration: a gradual decline, as in quality, serviceability, or vigor. Isolation: to set or place apart; detach or separate so as to be alone. Disorganized: functioning without adequate order, systemi...

Epigenetics? I love my readers; you are quite the knowledgeable bunch.  Just when I get comfortable with one topic, the most recent being Multiple Chemical Sensitivities , you throw me another bone. Fetch, girl, fetch!!! Not knowing what in the world 'epigenetics' was, I jumped in my hovercraft and headed back down the Information Superhighway. I took an exit that seemed to offer the best explanation, we laypeople, might understand. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it: The modern usage of the word is more narrow, referring to heritable traits (over rounds of cell division and sometimes transgenerationally) that do not involve changes to the underlying DNA sequence. Still confused?  Here's another way to look at it. The Greek prefix epi- in epigenetics implies features that are "on top of" or "in addition to" genetics; thus epigenetic traits exist on top of or in addition to the traditional molecular basis for inheritance. Still not getting ...