The social as signal in the body of chromatin

Human social interactions and material cultures are increasingly understood as biologically consequent environmental signals. Within the explanatory framework of epigenetics, such signals become biologically inscribed when transduced into bodies as persistent patterns of molecular conformation. In the life sciences, persistence of the social as the biological is understood as establishment of gene expression potentials, physiological changes, or epigenetic memories. How did the social become interchangeable with the environmental? When did both become scientifically graspable as signals? This article recounts the history of how hormone biologists came to think in terms of signal transduction in the late 1960s. This cybernetic legacy is important for understanding the ‘environmental turn’ of epigenetics. To understand the social as signal in the present moment – a post-cybernetic rather than post-genomic moment – the theory of the signal must itself be excavated and analysed.     

How biology became social,and what it means for social theory

In this paper I first offer a systematic outline of a series of conceptual novelties in the life‐sciences that have favoured, over the last three decades, the emergence of a more social view of biology. I focus in particular on three areas of investigation: (1) technical changes in evolutionary literature that have provoked a rethinking of the possibility of altruism, morality and prosocial behaviours in evolution; (2) changes in neuroscience, from an understanding of the brain as an isolated data processor to the ultrasocial and multiply connected social brain of contemporary neuroscience; and (3) changes in molecular biology, from the view of the gene as an autonomous master of development to the ‘reactive genome’ of the new emerging field of molecular epigenetics. In the second section I reflect on the possible implications for the social sciences of this novel biosocial terrain and argue that the postgenomic language of extended epigenetic inheritance and blurring of the nature/nurture boundaries will be as provocative for neo‐Darwinism as it is for the social sciences as we have known them. Signs of a new biosocial language are emerging in several social‐science disciplines and this may represent an exciting theoretical novelty for twenty‐first social theory.     

Epistemic modesty,ostentatiousness and the uncertainties of epigenetics: on the knowledge machinery of (social) science

Epigenetic processes are garnering attention in the social sciences, where some scholars assert their importance for theorizing social life. I engage with such ideas here by drawing on interviews with leading bioscientists. To begin with, I underscore the (productive) uncertainties of those working in and around epigenetics; I describe these as a manifestation of ‘epistemic modesty’, and suggest that dissensus helps to propel biomedical innovation. Then, drawing on the concept of ‘alien science’, I detail some researchers’ ambivalences regarding the notion of ‘transgenerational inheritance’; their dissatisfaction with the (public) communication practices of other scientists (situated in what I term a regime of ‘epistemic ostentatiousness’); and the challenges faced when moderating societal discussion of epigenetics in ways that expand excitement whilst deflating (what researchers regard as) unrealistic expectations. The paper concludes with reflections on the knowledge machinery of the (social) sciences, and employs the study data to interrogate sociological engagements with epigenetics.     

The challenges of new biopsychosocialities: hearing voices,trauma, epigenetics and mediated perception

This chapter considers the promise of epigenetics in the context of the phenomenon of voice hearing and the question of how to account for the links between voice hearing, trauma and abuse. The chapter explores the epistemic spaces and controversies, which surround the calls for a more psychosocial approach to be incorporated into the more molecular focus of epigenetics. This includes the vexed question of how to invent and work with models of psychological processes, which are processual, indeterminate and contiguous with the biological, social, technical, material and immaterial. These challenges are posed for sociologists, psychosocial researchers and molecular biologists, who when theorizing psychological processes, are often trapped by an individual/social dualism or bifurcation between nature and culture. The chapter explores evidence from the Hearing Voices Movement to draw out the issues at stake for addressing biosocial matters.     

Race in an epigenetic time: thinking biology in the plural

The notion that biological memories of environmental experiences can be embedded in the human genome and even transmitted transgenerationally is increasingly relevant in the postgenomic world, particularly in molecular epigenetics, where the genome is conceptualized as porous to environmental signals. In this article I discuss the current rethinking of race in epigenetic rather than genetic terms, emphasizing some of its paradoxical implications, especially for public policy. I claim in particular that: (i) if sociologists want to investigate race in a postgenomic world they should pay more attention to this novel plastic and biosocial view of race; and (ii) there are no reasons to believe that an epigenetic view will extinguish race, or that soft‐inheritance claims will produce a less exclusionary discourse than genetics (hard heredity). Quite the opposite, the ground for a re‐racialization of social debates and the reinforcement of biological boundaries between groups are highlighted in the article.     

An evaluation of common methods for dichotomization of continuous variables to discriminate disease status

Dichotomization of continuous variables to discriminate a dichotomous outcome is often useful in statistical applications. If a true threshold for a continuous variable exists, the challenge is identifying it. This paper examines common methods for dichotomization to identify which ones recover a true threshold. We provide mathematical and numeric proofs demonstrating that maximizing the odds ratio, Youden’s statistic, Gini Index, chi-square statistic, relative risk and kappa statistic all theoretically recover a true threshold. A simulation study evaluating the ability of these statistics to recover a threshold when sampling from a population indicates that maximizing the chi-square statistic and Gini Index have the smallest bias and variability when the probability of being larger than the threshold is small while maximizing Kappa or Youden’s statistics is best when this probability is larger. Maximizing odds ratio is the most variable and biased of the methods.     

Cultural epigenetics

Taking a Waddingtonian system approach, I discuss some of the implications of recent epigenetic research for the study of social systems. A growing number of investigations show that life-style changes resulting from nutritional, toxicological, and psychological stresses are reflected in changes in the epigenetic profile of individuals, and that learning and memory have epigenetic correlates. Moreover, various types of epigenetic changes can be inherited and affect the characters of descendants. Studying epigenetics can forge new experimental and conceptual bridges between biology, the social sciences and the humanities. For example, new techniques that allow the deciphering of methylation patterns in ancient DNA could be used to study the epigenetics of human cultures in long-gone historical periods, thus enriching and extending our knowledge of human history. Conceptually, an epigenetic perspective blurs traditional distinctions such as those between nature and nurture, plasticity and evolvability.     

From boundary-work to boundary object: how biology left and re-entered the social sciences

In an archaeological spirit this paper comes back to a founding event in the construction of the twentieth-century episteme, the moment at which the life- and the social sciences parted ways and intense boundary-work was carried out on the biology/society border, with significant benefits for both sides. Galton and Weismann for biology, and Alfred Kroeber for anthropology delimit this founding moment and I argue, expanding on an existing body of historical scholarship, for an implicit convergence of their views. After this excavation, I look at recent developments in the life sciences, which I have named the ‘social turn’ in biology (Meloni, 2014), and in particular at epigenetics with its promise to destabilize the social/biological border. I claim here that today a different account of ‘the biological’ to that established during the Galton–Kroeber period is emerging. Rather than being used to support a form of boundary-work, biology has become a boundary object that crosses previously erected barriers, allowing different research communities to draw from it.     

EZH2的功能及在肿瘤中的表达

EZH2在多种肿瘤中呈高表达,其过表达与组织学分化程度、临床分期、肿瘤大小、淋巴结转移和预后相关。本文就EZH2的结构、功能、与沉默机制相关的其他酶之间的联系,及其在肿瘤中的表达作一综述。