Dr. Alberto Halabe Bucay from Mexico has put forth a startling new idea: He says that the feelings we experience during our lifetimes can affect the way our children develop. His theory is that the hormones and chemicals generated by our brains when we're in different moods can influence the way genes are expressed in the "germ cells" that become eggs and sperm. These cells are responsible for getting genes into the next generation.
“It is well known, of course, that parental behavior affects children, and that the genes that a child gets from its parents help shape that child’s character," Halabe Bucay explains. “My paper suggests a way that the parent’s psychology before conception can actually affect the child’s genes.”
Keep in mind, however, that the paper appears in the journal Bioscience Hypotheses, which publishes groundbreaking ideas that haven't yet been peer-reviewed or tested by other scientists. —Heather Wax