Evidence that learned avoidance of a pathogenic bacterium can be transmitted to future generations in C. elegans is growing.

New research in C. elegans from scientists at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) helps explain how changes in the parents’ lysosomes that promote longevity are transferred to their offspring.

There are two entirely reasonable responses to this. One is to worry about the new inheritocracy harming society: how it could corrode incentives to work, say, or widen inequality and distort the ...