At the beginning of the 21st Century monsters still roam the remote, and sometimes not so remote, corners of our planet. It is our job to search for them. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is - we believe - the largest professional, scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals. Since 1992 the CFZ has carried out an unparalleled programme of research and investigation all over the world. Since 2009 we have been running the increasingly popular CFZ Blog Network, and although there has been an American branch of the CFZ for over ten years now, it is only now that it has a dedicated blog.

Wednesday 4 December 2013

The Wonders of DNA


Unless you are some kind of hermit and haven't come down from your mountain retreat for half a century, you'll have heard of DNA.  It's what we inherit from our ancestors.  For further description, see Wikipedia.  However, now that DNA has been discovered, some amazing characteristics of it have become established.

It now appears that Memory is, at least to a degree, passed down through DNA.  At Emory University School of Medicine, they have discovered that experiences of mice are passed down from generation to generation.  If that is the case, the implications for future generations could be quite staggering.

The way in which this was discovered was that mice were given an aversion to the scent of cherry blossom.  Their offspring consequently avoided cherry blossom or its aroma.  The same happened with the next generation.  As far as this line of mousehood was concerned, cherry blossom was out.  The structure of the brain was also affected by the experience.

Scientists argue that this may be a cause of irrational phobias.  If your ancestor had an unpleasant experience with spiders, he will pass on to you a fear of such creatures.  The use of this in dealing with psychological disorders must be clear.

However, a UFO website has taken an imaginative jump and asked if actual memories of our ancestors are stored in there.  Will further research show that there is such a thing as hereditary memory which will enable us to see what our ancestors saw?  Will pictures of animals now extinct, will the sensations of experiences undergone be subject to recall.  Will we be able to fill in the large blank in human experience that is called prehistory?  Who can say.....

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