Heredity Introduction

Why "It Runs in the Family"

You probably have heard the word "heredity" before. But do you know what it means and how it works? Heredity is the process in which certain traits, or characteristics (like tall, blond, etc.), are passed down from generation to generation. The first man to actually experiment with heredity in detail was Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk who worked with traits expressed in pea plants. Since Mendel lived in the mid-1800s, you probably think that a lot of progress has been made in the field of heredity since then. But, for many long years, people ignored Mendel's hard work and it wasn't until recently that it was "rediscovered" and taken seriously. But even now, the basic rules of heredity, first discovered by Mendel, remain the same, and only a few important new discoveries have been found since in this intriguing field.

This section will teach you all about heredity. Though the topic might seem difficult to understand at first, hang in there. When you get it, everything just clicks.

This section contains these sub-sections:

Introduction
Heredity
Punnett Squares