[08-15]

Even if this result is real (I smell bad statistics), it's completely useless.

All cells in our bodies have the same genome. But a hepatozyte and a neuron are very different cells, aren't they? The difference is that cells specialize, and they do so by selectively methylating their genome (not the only mechanism, but an important one), thereby modifying the expression of genes. So a liver has a very different epigenome than the brain of the same person. Now here we're looking at a study of the saliva epigenome, apparently the most important tissue they could come up with.

Then they don't analyze the epigenome in any interesting way. Generally, the more a cell specializes, the fewer genes are active. Expressing this as "more mature" is rather dumb. "More geriatric" would be equally appropriate. Does it not matter at all, which genes are methylated?

So, let's summarize the study properly:

"If you don't touch your child enough, his saliva with age more slowly."

[dwaltrip]

Can you back up your implication that the saliva epigenome has no other meaningful and impactful correlates?

[08-15]

Why do you expect me to prove a negative? These "scientists" (really just tinkerers) need to argue for their implicit claim first.

But they don't. They take the (correct, but hardly useful) statement "methylation generally increases with age" and instead say "with maturity" to make it sound impactful.