This methylation pattern played as great a role in determining a mouse's coat colour as did the underlying gene sequence.

ECONOMIST: Genes are not all there is to heredity

Study of these fragments showed that they sometimes differed from one another in three places along the length of the gene although this did not prove that any or all of those variations caused a difference in coat colour.

ECONOMIST: The genetics of mammoth coat colour

Shot predominantly in black and white, with spot colour for a Jewish child's red coat the film's unique identifying mark it recalls the tradition of post-war Italian neo-realism and the even older photographs of Roman Vishniac of Jewish life in Poland before the Nazis.

ECONOMIST: A new roll for film