Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics.GREGOR MENDEL: Planting the Seeds of Genetics SIMON MAWER Simon Mawer (born 1948, England) is a British author. He currently lives in Italy. Educated at Millfield School in Somerset and at Brasenose College, Oxford, Mawer took a degree in Zoology and has worked as a biology teacher for most of his life. Though most biology students know Gregor Mendel as the father of genetics, they know little about the man himself. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. lore, he was simply a monk who worked with peas and discovered how traits such as flower color were inherited through generations. Mawer, a novelist and biologist, fills in the gaps in this story with a detailed biography of this influential scientist, whose work was ignored during his lifetime. Mawer outlines Mendel's hybridization hybridization /hy·brid·iza·tion/ (hi?brid-i-za´shun) 1. crossbreeding; the act or process of producing hybrids. 2. molecular hybridization 3. experiments, in which he painstakingly bred seven types of garden peas to determine which characteristics were inherited. It wasn't until 30 years after he completed work that the significance of Mendel's discoveries was rediscovered and appreciated. His legacy is modern genetics research, leading to the discovery of chromosomes and DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. and the sequencing of genomes. Abrams, 2006, 176 p., color photos, hardcover, $29.95. |
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