Six years after Charles Darwin announced his theory of evolution to the world, Gregor Mendel began studying the inheritance of traits in pea plants. Mendel's research led to his discovery of dominant and recessive traits and other facts of evolution, which he reported in his groundbreaking 1865 paper, Experiments in Plant Hybridization. His findings languished until 1902, when William Bateson revived interest in the subject with this book, a succinct account of Mendel's heredity-related discoveries. Bateson coined the term "genetics" to refer to heredity and inherited traits, and his rediscovery of Mendel's work forms the foundation of today's field of genetics. Suitable for biology and general science students at the undergraduate and graduate levels, this volume is essential reading for anyone with an interest in science and genetics. In addition to Bateson's commentary, it features two of Mendel's papers—including the original Experiments—plus a biography of Mendel, a detailed bibliography, and indexes of subjects and authors. Numerous figures complement the text, along with eight pages of color illustrations.
William Bateson (1861-1926) began his academic career working on variation in animals in the light of evolutionary theory. He was inspired by the rediscovery in 1900 of the 1860s work on plant hybridisation by the Austrian monk Gregor Mendel (included here as an appendix) to pursue further experimental work in what he named 'genetics'. He realised that Mendel's results could help to solve difficult biological questions and controversies and to challenge the status quo in evolutionary studies. Annoyed by the 'apathetic' stance of his evolutionist colleagues, and incensed by a scathing critique of Mendel by the Oxford professor Raphael Weldon, Bateson incorporated an English translation of Mendel's work into this 1902 book along with a defence of Mendel's statistical experiments and the principles of heredity derived from them. His book is an impassioned appeal for scientists to adopt this 'brilliant method' which he felt could revolutionise both scholarship and industry.
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Experiments which in previous years were made with ornamental plants have already afforded evidence that the hybrids, as a rule, are not exactly intermediate between the parental species. With some of the more striking characters, those, for instance, which relate to the form and size of the leaves, the pubescence of the several parts, etc., the intermediate, indeed, is nearly always to be seen; in other cases, however, one of the two parental characters is so preponderant that it is difficult, or quite impossible, to detect the other in the hybrid. from 4. The Forms of the Hybrid One of the most influential and important scientific works ever written, the 1865 paper Experiments in Plant Hybridisation was all but ignored in its day, and its author, Austrian priest and scientist GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL (18221884), died before seeing the dramatic long-term impact of his work, which was rediscovered at the turn of the 20th century and is now considered foundational to modern genetics. A simple, eloquent description of his 18561863 study of the inheritance of traits in pea plantsMendel analyzed 29,000 of themthis is essential reading for biology students and readers of science history. Cosimo presents this compact edition from the 1909 translation by British geneticist WILLIAM BATESON (18611926).
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