Prof Benjamin Oldroyd: Epigenetics and evolution

Emeritus Professor of Behavioural Genetics at the University of Sydney, Benjamin Oldroyd is an experimental scientist who has published more than three hundred scientific papers, mostly on honey bees and their evolution. Oldroyd's new book Beyond DNA: How Epigenetics is Transforming our Understanding of Evolution advances new ways of thinking about evolution and adaptation. Here Prof Oldroyd examines the idea that spores, sperm, pollen and ova are packed with personalised extra-genetic information that play an important role in offspring development with lifelong effects.