Martine Lappe’s fascinating metascientific talk on the epigenetic effects of maternal care inspired me to seek out the scientific treatment of the topic at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, a massive shindig in which 30,000 brain researchers descend upon the Convention Center for four days of rattling off terms like adenohypophysis and mesencephalic without stammering. Anyway, I went to the keynote talk by Yasmin Hurd, and she had one slide illustrating the bifurcated possible outcomes of epigenetic effects — “Pathology” (a silhouette that looked a bit like Trump) — and “Resilience” — a photograph of Hillary — eliciting a huge spontaneous cheer from the audience of hundreds of neuroscientists.
