If genetics is the official language of life, epigenetics is the vernacular: knowing which words to use in a situation, how often to use them, and which words to leave out entirely.


Slightly less in brief:
The genome – the DNA that holds all the instructions for building an organism – doesn’t actually do anything.  Proteins do most of the work in a cell.  Proteins of all shapes and sizes, along with a few other types of molecule, are the cellular machinery. 

The genome is just a blueprint for this machinery.  Many short sections of the genome – the genes – describe how to build proteins.  Certain proteins read genes and make temporary copies, which other bits of cellular machinery then use to build new proteins.

So which genes get read?

Last week, two of the remaining, high-profile American newspapers--the Boston Globe and Washington Post--were sold to new owners.  The Washington Post passed from family ownership to Jeffrey Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, while, in an almost reverse sale, The Boston Globe was sold by The New York Times Company to John Henry, a Boston local and owner of the Red Sox.  Meanwhile, the same New York Times Company, largely family-owned, issued a public assurance that the New York Times will not be sold. 

These are three very different paths for three major journalistic outlets. Do we see any evidence for these paths in their readership numbers?