William Bateson Research Paper

William Bateson has made numerous contributions to the fields of genetics and evolution over these past few decades that have changed the concept of both disciplines. Bateson is largely responsible for bringing Mendelian genetics back to life and solidifying its characteristics as the basis for inheritance. Without the contributions of Bateson, society would not have learned the importance of experimental methodology in genetics. Bateson has proved his worth via his ground breaking research, his membership to the Royal Society of London along with the accolades of the Darwin Medal in 1904 and the Royal Medal in 1920.

Bateson has spent a tremendous amount of time in the field and academia performing ground breaking research. Bateson has received

Johns College conducting fascinating research. He studied primarily the connection between the environment and adaptation. It is important to note how Bateson altered Darwin’s theory of evolution and how he brought the field of genetics into existence by first understanding the state of the discipline prior to his discoveries. Previously, biometry was the school of thought when it came to inheritance, but Bateson’s work has shown the flaws in biometry. Biometry aims to describe how both close and distant relatives can affect hereditary through a continuous process. During his years here Bateson had focused on organisms that had mutations and species with varying discontinuities. His 1894 published work, Materials for the Study of Variation Treated with Especial Regard to Discontinuity in the Origin of Species, further developed the field of studying inheritance and challenged the concepts of Darwin’s evolution

The idea of natural selection is that small changes accumulate in organisms in and evolving species. But Bateson’s work proved that his discovery of discontinuous variation could suggest that evolution can occur in larger “jumps” in shorter periods of time, rather than the accumulation of small differences. This was a profound discovery and statement by Bateson that further recognizes him as a pioneer in the field of evolution alone. Bateson’s most prominent work that proves his contribution would be Mendel’s Principles of Heredity: A Defence, which set him apart as he defied the normal school of thought. After publishing Materials for the Study of Variation, Bateson transitioned from observational experimentation to more rigorous laboratory setting experiments.

Starting in 1895, Bateson performed a series of experiments that further developed discontinuity including butterflies and chickens. His studies with chickens involved cross-breeding certain species of chickens that presented different types of combs. Bateson’s discovery of a new genotype in chicken combs was explained by Mendelian