"Recent advances in cellular science herald an important evolutionary turning point. Though most people currently believe our lives are genetically ""predetermined,"" a radical new understanding is unfolding at the leading edge of science. Cellular biologists now recognize that the ""environment,"" the external universe and our internal ""physiology,"" and more ""importantly,"" our perception of the ""environment,"" directly control the activity of our genes. This program broadly reviews the molecular mechanisms by which environmental awareness interfaces genetic regulation and guides organismal evolution."