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IN THE biological theatre, genes are the directors, commanding the rest of the cell’s biomolecules to their proper places and cueing their lines. That has been the dominant metaphor in biology for decades.

In Epigenetics, Richard Francis argues for a more improvisational play in which genes are one actor among the rest.

The gene’s fall from leadership is the result of geneticists’ growing attention to epigenetics – a form of genetic change that is essentially the gene’s way of responding to its surroundings but which does not involve alterations in the gene’s DNA. So mothers who suffer severe stress during pregnancy have children more sensitive to stress, who pass that sensitivity along to their own children.

Readers new to epigenetics will find the book a pretty clear introduction, but its limited scope is likely to leave more advanced readers wanting more detail.