Your new laptop can be almost anything you need it to be. Right out of the box, it has the potential to become a business machine, a design studio, or a gaming console. Over its lifetime, the identity of the laptop will be determined by changes that add or enhance features, all without changing its original coding.
The ability to become something specialized from something ordinary makes your laptop a lot like a stem cell – the unprogrammed progenitor cells that give rise to heart cells, skin cells, muscle cells, and almost all other types of cells in our bodies. In biology, the refinements like the ones you make to your laptop would be called epigenetic changes.
Epigenetics are the changes that occur to an organism’s genetic makeup during its development and its life. These changes, which can be caused by environmental or chemical factors, do not alter an individual’s DNA sequence, but do affect the way cells interpret its genetic code and which proteins its cells manufacture. Diet, lifestyle, exposure to sunlight, and aging are all factors that can cause epigenetic changes.
