This chapter of Genome mainly revolved around the history behind the start of genetics. It elaborated on Mendel's famous pea-plant experiment, in which he discovered the characteristics of dominant and recessive alleles in genes. Mendel's discoveries challenged the long-accepted ideas of Darwinism at this time. The chapter also noted Hermann Joe Muller's discovery on genes being artificially mutable. His Nobel prize-winning discovery basically answered the question if mutation is "unique among biological processes in being itself outside the reach of modification or control" (46). His answer showed that mutation "does not stand as an unreachable god playing its pranks upon us from some impregnable citadel in the germplasm".
I thought it was interesting how this chapter was titled "History". At first I thought it just referred to the fact that there is a lot of history that backs up the creation the study of modern genetics. Then I realized that it is connected to genes themselves. Genes are passed down from parent to offspring, being the history that determines our phenotypes and genotypes. Our genes are the combinations of various histories from all of our ancestors and relatives.
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