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de Villena and his colleagues counted the RNA molecules produced and found that genes from the father produced on average more RNA than genes from the mother. (And remember, RNA directs the production of proteins, which are the workhorses of the body's development and function.) The implication? "It's not only what you inherit, but from whom you inherit," he said.

The external environment's effects upon genes can influence disease, and some of these effects can be inherited in humans. Studies investigating how environmental factors impact the genetics of an individual's offspring are difficult to design. However, in certain parts of the world in which social systems are highly centralized, environmental information that might have influenced families can be obtained. For example, Swedish scientists recently conducted investigations examining whether nutrition affected the death rate associated with cardiovascular disease and diabetes and whether these effects were passed from parents to their children and grandchildren (Kaati et al., 2002). These researchers estimated how much access individuals had to food by examining records of annual harvests and food prices in Sweden across three generations of families, starting as far back as the 1890s. These researchers found that if a father did not have enough food available to him during a critical period in his development just before puberty, his sons were less likely to die from cardiovascular disease. Remarkably, death related to diabetes increased for children if food was plentiful during this critical period for the paternal grandfather, but it decreased when excess food was available to the father. These findings suggest that diet can cause changes to genes that are passed down though generations by the males in a family, and that these alterations can affect susceptibility to certain diseases. But what are these changes, and how are they remembered? The answers to questions such as these lie in the concept of epigenetics.

Even if you look like your mother, an innovative study suggests that not only humans but, in fact, all mammals are genetically more like Dad. We inherit equal amounts of genetic material from each parent, yet that coming from our father's side is more likely to take action, according to the study that was published in the journal Nature Genetics.