20 - 006 History of Genetics.

Genetics is a branch of biology focussed upon the study of genes, genetic variation and heredity in organisms. Although becoming very scientific particularly with the use of computer technology to use advanced artificial intelligence (AI) techniques it has been a practice undertaken without a name since prehistoric times. It stems from the observation that living things inherit traits from their parents whereby this fact can be used to improve plant crops and animals through selective breeding. But the modern science of genetics, seeking to understand the hereditary process, began with the work of the an Hungarian Noble called Imre Festetics where he described several rules of genetic inheritance in a work called The Genetic Law of Nature (1819). This was followed by the more comprehensive work of an Augustinian Friar called Gregor Mendel in the 1850’s. The work of Charles Darwin in the book “On the Origin of Species” (1859) supported an idea of blended inheritance with the idea that individuals inherit a smooth blend of traits from their parents. But it was Mendel’s work that focussed upon the traits being linked to the combinations of distinct genes which has proved itself to be more scientifically correct. There was a discounted theory around associated with Jean Baptiste Lamark that individuals inherited the direct traits of their parents. Although the field of epigenetics has revived some aspects of Lamarck’s theory. In 1928 Federick Griffith discovered the phenomenon of the transformation of generic material followed in 1944 with the Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment which identified DNA as the molecule responsible for transformation. The Hershey – Chase experiment in 1952 confirmed DNA rather than a protein as the molecule responsible for inheritance. James Watson and Francis Crick determined the structure of DNA in 1953 using the X-ray crystallography work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins that indicated DNA has a helical structure. Genetics now adopted a more chemical engineering approach with it termed molecular genetics. This resulted in an explosion of research activities including the work of Frederick Sanger in 1977 allowing scientists to read the nucleotide sequence of a DNA module. In 1983 Kary Banks Mullis developed the polymerase chain reaction providing a quick way to isolate and amplify a specific section of DNA from a mixture. Whist the Human Genome Project led to the sequencing of the human genome in 2003. Richard Dawkins the ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author since his 1976 book called “The Selfish Gene” has provided a very readable narrative on the world of genetics. This has been followed with many books exploring all aspects of genetics. The approach taken is less deeply mathematical and scientific but more conceptual which has always suited my personal way of acquiring knowledge. Although I also like the works of scientists who can dip down to my level in terms of a communication style. This increasingly these days are those who are the new digital thinkers applying the powers of digitisation to the older scientific disciplines.