In which #Epigenetics & #EvoDevo meet #PublicHealth & #Epidemiology
'The notion that development is plastic—i.e. malleable in response to environmental, genetic or stochastic perturbations—is not something that will surprise epidemiologists, although the terminology may not be a familiar one. Indeed, epidemiology is concerned almost exclusively with ‘plastic’ processes, with the reliable identification of exposures that lead to modification of disease risk through such processes being of central concern.'
@cyrilpedia
The things I got from this were:
1) whatever happened to my vocabulary, and
2) the author thinks "black box" thinking is good.
I am an eng, so I may be unaware, but that sounds generally like part of the reason for current public health failures. Some epidemiologists seem to hold a lot of sway with Govt, and seem to be operating independently of any other relevant discipline, with the exception of a heavy list towards economics.