Concept and forms of implementation of law. Legal norms exist in order to purposefully influence the will and consciousness of people, encouraging them to behave this way. Discovering the personal abilities of each employee, providing

Legal norms exist in order to purposefully influence the will and consciousness of people, encouraging them to behave as the law prescribes and regulate social relations. The volitional behavior of people is an object of legal regulation. Through the behavior of participants in public relations, the results that the legislator intends to achieve by issuing rules of law are achieved.

The implementation of legal norms is the behavior of subjects of law, which embodies the requirements of legal norms (lawful behavior), the practical activities of people to exercise rights and fulfill legal obligations. In other words, this is the embodiment in the actions of people of those requirements that are generally expressed in the rules of law. The implementation of legal norms is a direct result of legal regulation, its specific manifestation.

What ensures lawful behavior of people, what incentives exist for the voluntary implementation of legal norms? When a person uses the rights that belong to him, he satisfies his needs, desires, and interests in a lawful way. The incentives for the lawful behavior of an individual in the performance of legal duties are very diverse. Incentives include awareness of one’s public duty to society and the state, internal conviction of the necessity and fairness of legal duties. There may be other incentives: habit, imitation of the behavior of other people, the desire to receive certain benefits, rewards, to be morally or financially encouraged. Finally, such an incentive as fear of future adverse consequences that may occur in the event of a violation of a legal obligation is also important - deprivation of certain benefits, direct coercion.

In educational literature, according to the nature of law-enforcing actions, four forms of implementation of legal norms are usually distinguished:

compliance - abstaining from actions prohibited by current law;

execution - performing active actions to fulfill legal obligations of positive content;

use - the exercise of a person’s powers, lawful actions at his discretion;

application - active power activity of competent authorities to resolve specific cases within the framework of legal norms, publication of special legal acts.

Real and complete implementation of a legal norm occurs only when subjective rights are fully implemented and legal obligations are fulfilled as elements of a legal relationship, which is the final stage of the implementation of legal norms through the creation (change, termination) of legal relations. For the rule of law to prevail, it is not enough just to conclude an agreement, submit an application, complain, or adopt individual legal acts, but a lot of organizational work is required to actually implement the content of the created legal relations.

September 08, 2018 -American researchers Joseph Wang from the University of California at San Diego have learned to create tablets with micromotors - self-propelled particles that release a drug or other substance when it enters the stomach. The tablet matrix makes it easier to deliver the micromotors to the stomach and also protects them, the scientists report in the journal ACS Nano. The micromotors created by scientists are multilayer spherical particles about 20 micrometers in size. Most of the particle is occupied by a magnesium core, and above it is a layer of titanium dioxide, as well as a pH-sensitive polylactide co-glycolide (PLGA), which acts as a carrier of a drug or other substance. In addition, the scientists also coated some micromotors with a 100-nanometer layer of chitosan, which ensures adhesion to the stomach walls. During the application of the outer layers, part of the magnesium core still remains exposed, allowing this area to interact with hydrochloric acid. In their work, the scientists used a fluorescent dye as a model substance inside the micromotors, not a real drug, but a fluorescent dye that simplifies tracking the process of substance release from the micromotor. Studies in vitro and in mice have shown that the tablet matrix does not interfere with the release of micromotors and the subsequent uniform distribution of the fluorescent marker throughout the stomach. The researchers note that despite successful trials, there are several obstacles to actual use of such pills. For example, the technological process for creating micromotors themselves is not suitable for mass production. (2)

September 08, 2018 -Many research groups are developing micromotors for use inside the human body. As a rule, they are microparticles, mainly made of magnesium or zinc, which, when ingested, react with hydrochloric acid and move in a reactive pulse to release hydrogen. Such micromotors have already begun to be tested on mice, including for the delivery of real drugs, rather than model marker substances. One of the unresolved problems with micromotors is how they are delivered to the body. Typically, during experiments on mice or other model objects, they are administered by injection. (2)

05 September 2018 -Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have created artificial cells that contain only the bare minimum necessary tools to detect and kill bacteria. They consist of membrane vesicles and individual purified components. Inside the lipid vesicles, which resemble the membrane structures of a normal cell, there is small DNA containing a strictly limited set of genes, individual proteins and other molecules necessary for their work. The modified membrane allows them to survive in a fairly wide range of conditions, but as soon as the internal reserves of the necessary substances run out, such cells die. But throughout their lives, they act as highly effective microbe hunters. In experiments, scientists designed synthetic cells so that their receptor proteins reacted to the presence of molecules in the environment - markers of E. coli bacteria, contacted their surface and destroyed. The authors suggest that in the future such synthetic systems can be created for a variety of tasks - be it the destruction of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a patient’s body or simply targeted delivery of drugs. (3)

March 20, 2018 -Researchers from MIPT and a number of institutes in the USA and China were able to decipher the structure of one of the most important proteins of the nervous system in combination with several drug molecules. This work opens up opportunities for the development of new drugs with controlled effects and reduced side effects. The study was published in the journal Cell. The development of computer technologies in chemistry and biology has made it possible to obtain very selective drugs, limited to only 2-3 very similar subtypes of the target protein. Scientists have identified features of proteins that allow precise targeting of drugs. The task of researchers from MIPT and their foreign colleagues was to identify the structural features of proteins due to which some drugs act selectively on them, while others do not. Using X-ray crystallography, the researchers obtained a 3D model of the protein at the moment of interaction with the drug. As expected, the binding of drugs to the receptor occurs in different ways. The region to which ergotamine binds is structured very similarly in many proteins, which ensures its nonselectivity. Ritanserin binds to the receptor somewhat differently and interacts with certain fragments that are unique to the small group of proteins on which it acts. Scientists have confirmed that it is these regions of the protein that are responsible for selectivity. Thus, analysis of the structural features of the protein in combination with drugs of different selectivity has shown its effectiveness: with its help, we will be able to control the set of targets, and therefore the direct and side effects of drugs at the development stage. This will allow patients to receive more effective therapy for many diseases with fewer side effects. (1)

It's human nature to sell. The Surprising Truth About Getting Others to Take Action Pink Daniel

Influence with purpose

American hospitals are not as dangerous as Kenyan matatu, but they are much less safe than you think. Each year, approximately 1 in 20 hospitalized patients contract an infection in US hospitals. The cost is staggering: 99,000 deaths per year, and annual losses approaching $40 billion(168). The most cost-effective way to prevent infections is to ensure that doctors, nurses and other staff wash their hands regularly. But hand washing in US hospitals is surprisingly rare. And many attempts to get people to wash their hands have most often been, unfortunately, unsuccessful.

Adam Grant, a Wharton School of Business professor whose research on ambiversion we discussed in Chapter 4, decided to try to find an effective way to encourage health care workers to change their behavior. In a study he conducted with David Hofmann of the University of North Carolina, Grant tried three different approaches to this non-selling problem. Researchers went to a US hospital and got permission to hang signs over 66 handwash dispensers for two weeks.

A third of the ads appealed to employees’ own interests:

HAND HYGIENE WILL PREVENT YOUR INFECTION

The second third emphasized the impact on patients, i.e. the purpose of the hospital:

HAND HYGIENE WILL PREVENT PATIENTS TO BE INFECTED

The final third included a catchy slogan and served as a control condition:

SOAP AND WASH

The researchers weighed the soap and gel containers at the beginning of the two-week period and then at the end to estimate how much was used. When they calculated the results, they found that the second sign was the most effective. “The number of hand hygiene products used from dispensers that were labeled with patient consequences was significantly higher than those that were labeled with a personal consequences placard...or a control placard,” Grant and Hofmann wrote (169).

Intrigued by the results, the researchers decided to test their validity nine months later in other departments of the same hospital. This time they only used two signs—the personal version (“HAND HYGIENE WILL PREVENT YOU FROM INFECTION”) and the patient version (“HAND HYGIENE WILL PREVENT PATIENTS BEING INFECTED”). Instead of weighing soap and gel, the researchers asked hospital staff to observe hand washing. Over the course of two weeks, volunteers, who were unaware of the nature of the study, secretly recorded when doctors, nurses and other staff were given the chance to wash their hands and whether they took the chance. Again, personal consequences messages had zero effect. But a sign that appealed to the hospital's mission increased handwashing rates by 10% overall and significantly more for physicians (170).

Smart signs alone cannot cope with hospital-acquired infections. As surgeon Atul Gawande has noted, surveillance checks and other procedures can be very effective on the infection control front(171). But Grant and Hofmann reached an equally important conclusion: “Our findings suggest that health and safety measures should be applied not so much to oneself as to the target group considered most vulnerable” (172).

Emphasizing a goal is one of the most effective—and most neglected—methods of motivating others to take action. We often assume that people are motivated primarily by self-interest, but a body of research shows that we all also act for reasons that sociologists call “prosocial” and “beyond self-perception” (173).

This means that we not only must serve ourselves, but also discover in others the inherent desire to serve. It is better to influence individuals when we influence purposefully.

To take just one example from the research, a team of British and New Zealand scientists recently conducted a pair of clever experiments in a different non-selling context. They randomly divided the participants into three groups. One group read information about why carpooling is good for the environment. (The researchers called these people the “transcending self-perception group.”) The second read about why carpooling saves people money. (This was the “self-interested group.”) And the third, control group, read general information about traveling by car. Participants then completed several irrelevant questionnaires to occupy their time. At the end, they were released and asked to throw away the papers they no longer needed. To do this, they provided a choice of a clearly marked bin for general waste and a clearly marked bin for waste sent for recycling. In the second and third groups – “self-interested” and control – about half of the participants decided to recycle the paper. But in the first group “going beyond self-perception”, almost 90% of the participants made this choice (174). Simply discussing a goal in one area (carpooling) motivated people to change their behavior in a completely different area (recycling).

What's more, Grant's research has shown that purpose not only enhances the effectiveness of activities like handwashing and recycling, but also traditional sales. In 2008, he conducted an amazing study in the call center of a large US university. Every evening, his employees called graduates to raise money for the university. As social psychologists usually do, Grant randomly divided the fundraisers into three groups. Then he organized their working conditions so that they were the same, with the exception of five minutes before the start of the shift.

A few weeks later, Grant took a look at their sales numbers. For the self-interest group and the control group, the number of contributions pledged and the amounts collected were about the same as before reading the stories. But people from the “group pursuing a goal” developed vigorous activity. They more than doubled “the weekly amount of pledges and the weekly amount of money collected” (175).

Sales educators, please note: a five-minute exercise with more than doubled performance. The stories added a personal element to the work; their content gave it purpose. This is what it means to serve: by improving the lives of other people, thereby improving the world around us. This is the lifeblood of service, and this is the final secret to successfully moving others to action.

In 1970, an unknown 66-year-old former AT&T mid-level manager, Robert Greenleaf, wrote an essay that launched an entire movement. He called it Servant as Leader—and in a few dozen heartfelt pages, he overturned the prevailing philosophy of business and political leadership. Greenleaf argued that the most effective leaders were not heroic, take-charge commanders, but rather quiet, humble men driven by the goal of serving those nominally below them on the social ladder. Greenleaf called the concept he discovered “service-leadership” and explained that the order of these two words is the key to understanding their meaning. “A servant leader is a servant first,” he wrote. – A person becomes a servant leader when he feels a natural desire to serve, to serve first. Conscious choice then leads to the desire to be a leader” (176).

The very idea that leaders obey their followers and that the traditional pyramid needs to be upended has confused many. But many more people were inspired by Greenleaf's philosophy. Those who accepted it learned to “do no harm,” “listen first” to a person, and only then react “to any problem” and “accept and sympathize” instead of refusing. Over time, companies as diverse as Starbucks, TD Industries, Southwest Airlines, and Brooks Brothers integrated Greenleaf's ideas into their management practices. Business schools have included Greenleaf's work in their reading lists and curricula. Non-profit organizations and religious institutions have introduced its principles to their members.

Servant-leadership gained popularity not only because many who tried it found it effective, but also because the approach expressed their hidden beliefs about other people and even deeper hidden aspirations of their own. Greenleaf's method of leadership was more difficult to understand, but also more transformative. He wrote: “Here is the best and most difficult test to perform: Have the people you serve grown as individuals? During the service, did they become healthier, wiser, freer, more independent, did they become more like themselves in order to turn into servants? (177)

Today it's time to put up for sale a version of Greenleaf's philosophy. Call it service-sales. It begins with the idea that those who move others to action are not manipulators, but servants. They serve first and then sell. Here's a test that, like Greenleaf's, is the best and hardest to perform: If the person you're selling to agrees to buy, will their life be better? After your interaction with him ends, will the world be a better place than when it began?

Service-selling today expresses the essence of motivating others to action. But in some way it was always present among those who sold with due respect. For example, Alfred Fuller, whose company gave Norman Hall something he had never imagined, said that at a critical point in his own career he realized that his work was better in every sense of the word when he served first and sold second. Fuller began to think of himself as a social reformer, a patron of families, and “a crusade against unsanitary kitchens and insufficiently clean houses.” He admitted that it sounded stupid. “But a successful seller must feel some confidence that his product brings as many altruistic benefits to humanity as it makes money for the seller.” An effective salesman is not “a salesman who thinks only about profit,” Fuller argued. A true “salesman is an idealist and an artist” (178).

The same can be said about a real person. Among other things, our species, compared to others, is distinguished by a combination of idealism and artistry - our desire to improve the world and give it something that it did not have and that it did not even know about. Motivating others to action does not require us to neglect these noble qualities of our nature. Today it demands that we learn to use them. We must remember that it is human nature to sell.

From the book Business Way: Amazon.com author Saunders Rebecca

Buy with Purpose If you look at Bezos' acquisitions or his firm's early alliances with other companies, you'll see a clear goal: to be able to offer "the world's greatest selection." Now everything is not so clear. WITH

From the book Leading with Purpose. Give your company an incentive to believe in itself by Baldoni John

How to lead with purpose Questions for the leader How well have I set goals for the team? What can I do to instill a clear sense of purpose in my team?Leading Tips Describe your organization's purpose in one sentence,

From the book It is human nature to sell. The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others to Take Action by Pink Daniel

Influence Individuals Radiologists are lonely professionals. Unlike many physicians, who spend a significant portion of their workday interacting directly with patients, radiologists often sit alone in dimly lit offices or hunched over computers studying

Epigenetics is a branch of genetics that has relatively recently emerged as an independent field of research. But today this young dynamic science offers a revolutionary insight into the molecular mechanisms of development of living systems.

One of the most daring and inspiring epigenetic hypotheses, that the activity of many genes is subject to external influence, is now being confirmed in many experiments in animal models. The researchers cautiously comment on their results, but do not rule out that Homo sapiens does not fully depend on heredity, which means it can purposefully influence it.

In the future, if scientists turn out to be right and they manage to find the keys to the mechanisms of gene control, humans will be able to control the physical processes occurring in the body. Aging may well be one of them.

In Fig. mechanism of RNA interference.

dsRNA molecules can be a hairpin RNA or two paired complementary strands of RNA.
Long dsRNA molecules are cut (processed) in the cell into short ones by the Dicer enzyme: one of its domains specifically binds the end of the dsRNA molecule (marked with an asterisk), while the other produces breaks (marked with white arrows) in both dsRNA strands.

As a result, a double-stranded RNA of 20-25 nucleotides in length (siRNA) is formed, and Dicer proceeds to the next cycle of cutting the dsRNA, binding to its newly formed end.

These siRNAs can be incorporated into a complex containing the Argonaute protein (AGO). One of the siRNA chains, in complex with the AGO protein, finds complementary messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules in the cell. AGO cuts target mRNA molecules, causing the mRNA to degrade, or stops translation of the mRNA on the ribosome. Short RNAs can also suppress transcription (RNA synthesis) of a gene homologous to them in nucleotide sequence in the nucleus.
(drawing, diagram and comment / Nature magazine No. 1, 2007)

Other, as yet unknown, mechanisms are also possible.
The difference between epigenetic and genetic mechanisms of inheritance is their stability and reproducibility of effects. Genetically determined traits can be reproduced indefinitely until a certain change (mutation) occurs in the corresponding gene.
Epigenetic changes induced by certain stimuli are usually reproduced over a series of cell generations within the life of one organism. When they are transmitted to subsequent generations, they can reproduce for no more than 3-4 generations, and then, if the stimulus that induced them disappears, they gradually disappear.

What does this look like at the molecular level? Epigenetic markers, as these chemical complexes are usually called, are not located in the nucleotides that form the structural sequence of the DNA molecule, but they directly pick up certain signals?

Absolutely right. Epigenetic markers are indeed not IN the nucleotides, but ON them (methylation) or OUTSIDE them (acetylation of chromatin histones, microRNAs).
What happens when these markers are passed on to subsequent generations is best explained using the analogy of a Christmas tree. Passing from generation to generation, “toys” (epigenetic markers) are completely removed from it during the formation of a blastocyst (8-cell embryo), and then, during the process of implantation, they are “put on” in the same places where they were before. This has been known for a long time. But what has become known recently, and which has completely revolutionized our understanding of biology, has to do with epigenetic modifications acquired during the life of a given organism.

For example, if the body is under the influence of a certain influence (heat shock, fasting, etc.), a stable induction of epigenetic changes occurs (“buying a new toy”). As previously assumed, such epigenetic markers are completely erased during fertilization and embryo formation and, thus, are not passed on to offspring. It turned out that this was not the case. In a large number of studies in recent years, epigenetic changes induced by environmental stress in representatives of one generation were detected in representatives of 3-4 subsequent generations. This indicates the possibility of inheritance of acquired characteristics, which until recently was considered absolutely impossible.

What are the most important factors causing epigenetic changes?

These are all factors that operate during sensitive stages of development. In humans, this is the entire period of intrauterine development and the first three months after birth. The most important ones include nutrition, viral infections, maternal smoking during pregnancy, insufficient production of vitamin D (due to sun exposure), and maternal stress.
That is, they increase the body’s adaptation to changing conditions. And no one knows yet what “messengers” exist between environmental factors and epigenetic processes.

But, in addition, there is evidence that the most “sensitive” period during which major epigenetic modifications are possible is periconceptual (the first two months after conception). It is possible that attempts at targeted intervention in epigenetic processes even before conception, that is, on germ cells even before the formation of a zygote, may be effective. However, the epigenome remains quite plastic even after the end of the embryonic development stage, some researchers are trying to correct it in adults.

For example, Min Ju Fan ( Ming Zhu Fang) and her colleagues from Rutgers University in New Jersey (USA) found that in adults, using a certain component of green tea (the antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)) can activate tumor suppressor genes through DNA demethylation.

Currently, about a dozen drugs are already under development in the United States and Germany, the creation of which was based on the results of recent studies of epigenetics in the diagnosis of cancer.
What are the key questions in epigenetics now? How can their solution advance the study of the mechanisms (process) of aging?

I believe that the aging process is inherently epigenetic (“like a stage of ontogeny”). Research in this area has only begun in recent years, but if it is successful, humanity may have a powerful new tool to fight disease and prolong life.
The key issues now are the epigenetic nature of diseases (for example, cancer) and the development of new approaches to their prevention and treatment.
If we can study the molecular epigenetic mechanisms of age-related diseases, it will be possible to successfully counteract their development.

After all, for example, a worker bee lives 6 weeks, and a queen bee lives 6 years.
With complete genetic identity, they differ only in that the future queen bee is fed royal jelly for several days more during development than an ordinary worker bee.

As a result, representatives of these bee castes develop slightly different epigenotypes. And, despite the external and biochemical similarity, their life expectancy differs by 50 times!

During research in the 60s, it was shown that it decreases with age. But have scientists made any progress in answering the question: why is this happening?

There is a lot of work indicating that the characteristics and rate of aging depend on the conditions of early ontogenesis. Most associate this with the correction of epigenetic processes.

DNA methylation does indeed decrease with age; why this happens is not yet known. One version is that this is a consequence of adaptation, an attempt by the body to adapt to both external stress and internal “super stress” - aging.

It is possible that DNA “turned on” during age-related demethylation is an additional adaptive resource, one of the manifestations of the vitaukt process (as it was called by the outstanding gerontologist Vladimir Veniaminovich Frolkis) - a physiological process that counteracts aging.

To make changes at the gene level, it is necessary to identify and replace the mutated “letter” of DNA, maybe a section of genes. So far, the most promising way to carry out such operations is biotechnological. But this is still an experimental direction and there are no major breakthroughs in it yet. Methylation is a more flexible process; it is easier to change, including with the help of pharmacological drugs. Is it possible to learn to control selectively? What else remains to be done for this?

Methylation is unlikely. It is non-specific, it affects everything “wholesale”. You can teach a monkey to hit the keys of a piano, and it will produce loud sounds from it, but it is unlikely to perform the “Moonlight Sonata”. Although there are examples where, with the help of methylation, it was possible to change the phenotype of an organism. The most famous example is with mice - carriers of the mutant agouti gene (I have already cited it). The reversion to normal coat color occurred in these mice because the “defective” gene was “turned off” due to methylation.

But it is possible to selectively influence gene expression, and interfering RNAs, which act highly specifically, only on “their own” ones, are excellent for this. Such work is already being carried out.

For example, American researchers recently transplanted human tumor cells into mice whose immune system was suppressed, which could freely multiply and metastasize in immunodeficient mice. Scientists were able to identify those expressed in metastasizing cells and, by synthesizing the corresponding interfering RNA and injecting it into mice, block the synthesis of “cancer” messenger RNA and, accordingly, suppress tumor growth and metastasis.

That is, based on modern research, we can say that epigenetic signals underlie various processes occurring in living organisms. What are they? What factors influence their formation? Are scientists able to decipher these signals?

Signals can be very different. During development and stress, these are signals primarily of a hormonal nature, but there is evidence that even the influence of a low-frequency electromagnetic field of a certain frequency, the intensity of which is a million (!) times less than the natural electromagnetic field, can lead to the expression of heat shock protein genes (HSP70) in cell culture fields. In this case, this field, of course, does not act “energetically”, but is a kind of signal “trigger” that “starts” gene expression. There is still a lot of mystery here.

For example, recently opened bystander effect(“bystander effect”).
Briefly, its essence is this. When we irradiate a cell culture, they experience a wide range of reactions, from chromosomal aberrations to radioadaptive reactions (the ability to withstand high doses of radiation). But if we remove all the irradiated cells and transfer other, non-irradiated cells into the remaining nutrient medium, they will show the same reactions, although no one has irradiated them.

It is assumed that irradiated cells release certain epigenetic “signaling” factors into the environment, which cause similar changes in non-irradiated cells. No one knows yet what the nature of these factors is.

Great expectations for improving quality of life and life expectancy are associated with scientific advances in the field of stem cell research. Will epigenetics be able to live up to its promise of reprogramming cells? Are there serious prerequisites for this?

If a reliable technique for “epigenetic reprogramming” of somatic cells into stem cells is developed, this will certainly be a revolution in biology and medicine. So far, only the first steps have been taken in this direction, but they are encouraging.

A well-known maxim: a person is what he eats. What effect does food have on our lives? For example, geneticists from the University of Melbourne, who studied the mechanisms of cellular memory, discovered that after receiving a one-time dose of sugar, the cell stores the corresponding chemical marker for several weeks.

There is even a special section on epigenetics - Nutritional Epigenetics, dealing specifically with the issue of the dependence of epigenetic processes on nutritional characteristics. These features are especially important in the early stages of organism development. For example, when a baby is fed not with mother's milk, but with dry formulas based on cow's milk, epigenetic changes occur in the cells of his body, which, fixed by the imprinting mechanism, lead over time to the onset of an autoimmune process in the beta cells of the pancreas and , as a consequence, type I diabetes.

In Fig. development of diabetes (the figure enlarges when clicked with the cursor). In autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, a person's immune system attacks his own organs and tissues.
Some autoantibodies begin to be produced in the body long before the first symptoms of the disease appear. Their identification can help in assessing the risk of developing the disease.
(drawing from the magazine “IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE”, July 2007 No. 7)

And inadequate (limited in the number of calories) nutrition during fetal development is a direct path to obesity in adulthood and type II diabetes.

Does this mean that a person is still responsible not only for himself, but also for his descendants: children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren?

Yes, of course, and to a much greater extent than was previously believed.

What is the epigenetic component in the so-called genomic imprinting?

With genomic imprinting, the same gene appears phenotypically differently depending on whether it is passed on to the offspring from the father or mother. That is, if a gene is inherited from the mother, then it is already methylated and is not expressed, whereas a gene inherited from the father is not methylated and is expressed.

The most actively studied is genomic imprinting in the development of various hereditary diseases that are transmitted only from ancestors of a certain sex. For example, the juvenile form of Huntington's disease manifests itself only when the mutant allele is inherited from the father, and atrophic myotonia - from the mother.
And this despite the fact that the diseases themselves that cause these diseases are absolutely the same, regardless of whether they are inherited from the father or mother. The differences lie in the “epigenetic prehistory” caused by their presence in the maternal or, conversely, paternal organisms. In other words, they carry the "epigenetic imprint" of the parent's sex. When present in the body of an ancestor of a certain sex, they are methylated (functionally repressed), and of another - demethylated (respectively, expressed), and in the same state are inherited by descendants, leading (or not leading) to the occurrence of certain diseases.

You have been studying the effects of radiation on the body. It is known that low doses of radiation have a positive effect on the lifespan of fruit flies fruit flies. Is it possible to train the human body with low doses of radiation? Alexander Mikhailovich Kuzin, expressed by him back in the 70s of the last century, doses that are approximately an order of magnitude larger than the background ones lead to a stimulating effect.

In Kerala, for example, the background level is not 2, but 7.5 times higher than the “average Indian” level, but neither the incidence of cancer nor the mortality rate from it differs from the general Indian population.

(See, for example, the latest on this topic: Nair RR, Rajan B, Akiba S, Jayalekshmi P, Nair MK, Gangadharan P, Koga T, Morishima H, Nakamura S, Sugahara T. Background radiation and cancer incidence in Kerala, India-Karanagappally cohort study. Health Phys. 2009 Jan;96(1):55-66)

In one of your studies, you analyzed data on the dates of birth and death of 105 thousand Kiev residents who died between 1990 and 2000. What conclusions were drawn?

The life expectancy of people born at the end of the year (especially in December) turned out to be the longest, and the shortest for those born in April-July. The differences between the minimum and maximum monthly averages turned out to be very large and reached 2.6 years for men and 2.3 years for women. Our results suggest that how long a person will live largely depends on the season of the year in which he was born.

Is it possible to apply the information obtained?

What could be the recommendations? For example, should children be conceived in the spring (preferably in March) so that they are potentially long-lived? But this is absurd. Nature does not give everything to some and nothing to others. So it is with “seasonal programming.” For example, in studies carried out in many countries (Italy, Portugal, Japan), it was revealed that schoolchildren and students born in late spring - early summer (according to our data - “short-lived”) have the highest intellectual capabilities. These studies demonstrate the futility of “applied” recommendations for having children during certain months of the year. But these works, of course, are a serious reason for further scientific research into the mechanisms that determine “programming,” as well as the search for means of targeted correction of these mechanisms in order to prolong life in the future.

One of the pioneers of epigenetics in Russia, Moscow State University professor Boris Vanyushin, in his work “Materialization of epigenetics or Small changes with big consequences,” wrote that the last century was the century of genetics, and the current one is the century of epigenetics.

What allows us to evaluate the position of epiginetics so optimistically?

After the completion of the Human Genome program, the scientific community was shocked: it turned out that information about the structure and functioning of a person is contained in approximately 30 thousand genes (according to various estimates, this is only about 8-10 megabytes of information). Experts who work in the field of epigenetics call it the “second information system” and believe that deciphering the epigenetic mechanisms that control the development and functioning of the body will lead to a revolution in biology and medicine.

For example, a number of studies have already been able to identify typical patterns in such drawings. Based on them, doctors can diagnose the formation of cancer at an early stage.
But is such a project feasible?

Yes, of course, although it is very expensive and can hardly be implemented during a crisis. But in the long term - quite.

Back in 1970, Vanyushin’s group in the magazine "Nature" published data on what regulates cell differentiation, leading to differences in gene expression. And you talked about this. But if every cell of an organism contains the same genome, then each type of cell has its own epigenome, and accordingly the DNA is methylated differently. Considering that there are about two hundred and fifty types of cells in the human body, the amount of information can be colossal.

This is why the Human Epigenome project is very difficult (although not hopeless) to implement.

He believes that the smallest phenomena can have a huge impact on a person’s life: “If the environment plays such a role in changing our genome, then we must build a bridge between biological and social processes. It will absolutely change the way we look at things.”

Is it all that serious?

Certainly. Now, in connection with the latest discoveries in the field of epigenetics, many scientists are talking about the need for a critical rethinking of many provisions that seemed either unshakable or forever rejected, and even about the need to change the fundamental paradigms in biology. Such a revolution in thinking can certainly have a significant impact on all aspects of people’s lives, from their worldview and lifestyle to an explosion of discoveries in biology and medicine.

Information about the phenotype is contained not only in the genome, but also in the epigenome, which is plastic and can, changing under the influence of certain environmental stimuli, influence the expression of genes - A CONTRADICTION TO THE CENTRAL DOGMA OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, ACCORDING TO WHICH THE FLOW OF INFORMATION CAN ONLY GO FROM DNA TO PROTEINS, BUT NOT THE OVERSEAS.
Epigenetic changes induced in early ontogenesis can be recorded by the imprinting mechanism and change the entire subsequent fate of a person (including psychotype, metabolism, predisposition to diseases, etc.) - ZODIACAL ASTROLOGY.
The cause of evolution, in addition to random changes (mutations) selected by natural selection, are directed, adaptive changes (epimutations) - THE CONCEPT OF CREATIVE EVOLUTION by the French philosopher (Nobel laureate in literature, 1927) Henri BERGSON.
Epimutations can be transmitted from ancestors to descendants - INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERISTICS, LAMARCHISM.

What pressing questions will need to be answered in the near future?

How does the development of a multicellular organism occur, what is the nature of the signals that so accurately determine the time of occurrence, structure and functions of various organs of the body?

Is it possible to change organisms in the desired direction by influencing epigenetic processes?

Is it possible to prevent the development of epigenetically determined diseases, such as diabetes and cancer, by correcting epigenetic processes?

What is the role of epigenetic mechanisms in the aging process, is it possible to prolong life with their help?

Is it possible that the currently incomprehensible patterns of evolution of living systems (non-Darwinian evolution) are explained by the involvement of epigenetic processes?

Naturally, this is only my personal list; it may differ for other researchers.