Completed in March 2000, the project found that the human genome contains something like 25,000 genes which is hardly enough to make an above average worm. Thus, after spending $3 billion dollars, biologists still did not know much about how the genome is regulated, but there was one very important conclusion and that was DNA is modified by the environment. As the ENCODE project showed, vast quantities of seemingly useless “junk DNA” are expressed, not for making proteins, but for switching genes on and off. Despite hundreds of research papers based on decades of experimental research, this approach to understanding how genes work was largely ignored. It was not considered important until the Human Genome Project failed to supply the answers that would allow DNA to be manipulated and produce the cures that so many hoped would exist for the most intractable diseases that plague mankind. The human epigenome contains an as yet unknowable number of patterns of epigenetic marks, a number so big that leading biologists and epigenetic scientists won't even speculate on it. The number is certainly in the millions. A full epigenome map will require major advances in computing power. When completed, the Human Epigenome Project (already under way in Europe) will make the Human Genome Project look trivial in comparison.

In September 2011, the Science Daily article Are Genes Our Destiny? Scientists Discover 'Hidden' Code in DNA Evolves More Rapidly Than Genetic Code, reported a groundbreaking study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The study, published September 16 in the journal Science, provided the first evidence that an organism's epigenetic code — an extra layer of biochemical instructions in DNA — can evolve more quickly than the genetic code and can strongly influence biological traits. That is major news. Here is a relevant quote:

“Our study shows that it's not all in the genes,” said Joseph Ecker, a professor in Salk's Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, who led the research team. “We found that these plants have an epigenetic code that's more flexible and influential than we imagined. There is clearly a component of heritability that we don't fully understand. It's possible that we humans have a similarly active epigenetic mechanism that controls our biological characteristics and gets passed down to our children.”

Are Genes Our Destiny? Scientists Discover 'Hidden' Code in DNA Evolves More Rapidly Than Genetic Code, Science Daily, 17th September 2011

Geneticists are being forced to acknowledge that an early naturalist did anticipate modern epigenetics. Darwinists have long disparaged Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829), who argued that evolution could occur within a generation or two. He suggested that animals acquired certain traits during their lifetimes because of their environment and choices. The most famous Lamarckian example was he thought giraffes acquired their long necks because their recent ancestors had stretched to reach high, nutrient-rich leaves and then the giraffe's offspring inherited a long neck.

In contrast, Darwin argued that evolution works not through the fire of effort but through cold, impartial selection. Standard Darwinist thinking, states giraffes got their long necks over millennia because genes for long necks had very slowly gained advantage, i.e. a giraffe is more likely to get enough food to survive to reproduce. Lamarck's theory was eventually discredited because scientists misunderstood the issue that acquired characteristics do not necessarily have a genetic basis. Yet epigenetics is now forcing scientists to re-evaluate Lamarck's ideas and the Lamarckian experimentalist Paul Kammerer who was dismissed as fraud. Today Kammerer's observations in the 1920s look suspiciously like newly discovered aspects of epigenetics.

Well, the standard theory of evolution – a Neo-Darwinian synthesis of Darwinian's natural selection with Mendelian genetics – states that the only significant genetic change in the form of a mutation is entirely random. The theory states that mutations provide the raw material for evolution but natural selection provides the direction of evolutionary change. This belief has been the central tenet of evolutionary theory for nearly a century.

Well, due to overwhelming evidence, the question of evolution has become a major problem. The evolution of DNA and permanent genetic change by natural selection might not be the final arbiter of evolutionary change. There are now two 'new' discoveries that are upsetting biologists and geneticists. Firstly, epigenetic changes represent a biological response to an environmental stressor. That response can be inherited through many generations via epigenetic marks, but if you remove the environmental pressure, the epigenetic marks will eventually fade, and the DNA code will – over time – begin to revert to its original programming. Well, that's what some scientists current believe as they are still clinging onto the idea that only natural selection causes permanent genetic change. Secondly, there is a mechanism called Somatic Hypermutation – rapid or excessive alterations of the genes. This is a process that allows an organism to use a suitable gene variant to effectively relieve an environmental stress. Simply, it has been shown with bacterium that if it needs help, it can simply cut out some useless genetic material and replace it with something more helpful. That means no evolution at the genetic level at all! This was first revealed in 1988, by the internationally recognized geneticist John Cairns who wrote the paper, “The Origin of Mutants” that was published in the prestigious British journal Nature. Since, this research was a serious challenge to prevailing beliefs of random mutations espoused by Darwin followers, it was immediately condemned as complete heresy. Of course, after 10 years of replication, scientists were forced to admit that an alternative mechanism for evolution existed.

Dr. Catherine Suter, who heads the epigenetics laboratory at Sydney's Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute states:

“It is plausible that natural selection could act on environmentally induced epigenetic changes. If the environment turns off certain genes, that could make them more vulnerable to mutation.”

McCredie J, How epigenetics is changing our fight with disease, ABC Science News, 01 October 2009 Link

In the book Tuning the Diamonds: Electromagnetism & Spiritual Evolution, evolutionary changes are associated with the Earth's magnetic field fading and the example is given of what happened 40,000 years ago. Susan Joy Rennison writes:

“During this period, the Earth's magnetic field dropped in strength to about 10% of today's value, and so without the normal protective shield, cosmic radiation penetrated the Earth's atmosphere with ease. The facts reveal that the climate changed and there was a host of evolutionary changes, where numerous species in the Northern Hemisphere either underwent significant change or disappeared altogether.“

Source: Cosmic Radiation and Clouds, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, EAWAG News 58, January 2005, Link