Today I read the twelfth chapter in “The Ascent of Man,” by J. Bronowski — Generation upon Generation. This chapter was about dominant and recessive genes as well as the person who thought of them, Gregor Mendel. Although he was not particularly skilled in school, he was able to conceive of the idea of the gene theory because of his observations as a naturalist and farm boy. He performed various experiments and gathered evidence supporting his idea, using peas and then lizards to test his theory. I enjoyed learning about Mendel’s success, especially because it is a delightful tale of how a simple farm boy could achieve success because of an interest of his. I also liked learning more about recessive and dominant genes — the gene for being tall may triumph over the gene for being short in the first generation, but in the second generation, there is a small possibility that the recessive gene for being short may reappear, which I found quite interesting, as it explained why people weren’t all the same if dominant traits won against recessive ones. The chapter also contained more, interesting information about DNA. I would recommend it to anyone interested in DNA or simply looking for a good read and rate it 9.8/10.
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