This research seminar aims at making students familiar with the arguments and methodologies used to scrutinise the impact of anthropogenic, environmental and ecological dynamics on public health, and the ‘weight’ that historical, cultural, political and economic contexts have had on the scientific models used to disentangle these relationships. Specifically, starting from the new discipline of ecological, evolutionary, developmental biology (eco-evo-devo), this seminar shows the interdisciplinary advancements of epigenetics and microbiome research pointing at the pervasive impact that industrial activities such as food production have on smaller scales, for example onto the microbiota of individual organisms and human communities. Biological dynamics such as those studied in epigenetics and developmental symbiosis shed light on the uncertainties of models of scientific explanation as well as unexpected effects of modes of production. Finally, this seminar examines arguments supporting and critical of both the grand narrative developed within the Anthropocene as well as the resulting global, human identity. Through readings and discussions, this seminar allows students to develop tools to understand and critically analyse how during the last century, scientific values have met, sometimes controversially, the social values.