4.26.2008
This new exhibit about Darwin's garden seems to be implying that Darwin himself had something like a Mendelian understanding of heredity and variation. This implies that the research that led to the Origin of Species anticipates the Modern Synthesis. I'm not sure I believe that (in fact, I am pretty sure that I don't), but it is a very interesting conjecture. It also forces one to ask the question why Darwin didn't work out the Mendelian population "genetics" if he had the plant data in his back yard.
[ tyler curtain ] 09:25