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Genetics
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Genetics is the branch of biology that studies genes, heredity, and variation in living things. It grew rapidly after the rediscovery, around 1900, of Gregor Mendel's earlier work on inheritance in pea plants.
Facts
Founded YearThe biologist William Bateson coined the term genetics in an April 1905 letter to Adam Sedgwick, then used it publicly the following year. Central QuestionHow much of a heritable trait's variation is caused by genes rather than environment, and how does that balance shift across different populations and settings? 2 ScopeGenetics is the study of genes, genetic variation and heredity in organisms, and a central branch of biology because heredity is vital to evolution. 2 SignificanceAn important branch of biology, because heredity is vital to how organisms evolve. 2 Cross-Tradition Connections
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Founded By
Mendel's 1865 to 1866 pea experiments are the field's intellectual origin, though the name genetics itself was coined later, by William Bateson in 1905, the year recorded elsewhere as when the field was founded.
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In the Other Atlases
- Also in Medicine Atlas: Genetics, the same subject.
- Also in Medicine Atlas: Medical Genetics, influenced this subject there.
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