Epigenetic-Ga

[anonanon 932]

8 minutes ago, Lord Temptation said:

You’re acting like the science of epigenetics is clear-cut, well-established and unambiguous. Hunny, it’s not. It is complicated and poorly understood - including by scientists. What Gaga is doing, as an artist, is channeling the mysteries and complexities of this massive grey area into something empowering and definite that can possibly heal. Music is medicine. She is basically using art as therapy, in a way that may help the very science it is inspired by. She is allowed to talk about her art. She is allow to talk about her pain. 

Please don’t make scientists some elite bunch of infallible people that know things before they become established as fact (a process which takes years of longitudinal testing and replication of results) and that only ever agree with each other. They, like celebrities, are ONLY human. 

Sorry I didn't think I was making epigenetics out to be clear cut. I definitely didn't mean it to come off like that. I work in genomics research so I'm well aware that scientific topics are complicated. There is often ambiguity and disagreement among researchers as knowledge evolves. I also didn't say only scientists are allowed to talk about scientific research. I did say, in general, not even talking about this interview in particular, I feel celebrities have additional responsibility when discussing topics they are not experts in. Is it fair? Not really, and I don't envy them, but that's how it is.

Regarding Gaga, I don't think it's really that serious. She is probably just interested in it and that's cool. She can talk about whatever she wants, and people can/should be free to further discuss and provide corrections when needed. She even said herself she didn't want to come off as a pseudoscientist.

I'll admit there is a fair amount of gatekeeping in science and sometimes the line between "good" and "bad" gatekeeping is blurry, but honestly I assume most of the people responding here are probably just excited to talk to other researchers on a pop forum.

[Rat Q 531]

As a Chippewa native this is all very important to how my tribe thinks, acts, and lives.

[DrVictor 82]

I think that she came across this highly exaggerated idea about epigenetics in Chopra's book 'Super Genes'. (She's a huge Deepak Chopra fan ). I haven't read any of his stuff but I know for a fact that he's not a scientist, and I am glad that Gaga is emphasizing the fact that she's not the scientist either and, therefore, people shouldn't take her seriously when she talks about epigenetics. 

However, here's a very cool paper on how trauma can have intergenerational effects through epigenetics alterations: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26410355/  Also, trauma is extremely complex physiological response that involves the activity of numerous genes so it's still very early to talk about this phenomenon with certainty that Chopra has.