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References

[1] Bruce C. Brown, Physics Today, March 1988, P. 13.

[2] Curt Stern and Eva R. Sherwood, Editors, The Origin of Genetics: A Mendel Source Book, (W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco, 1966). Page 152.

[3] Curt Stern and Eva R. Sherwood, Editors, Op. cit., page 137.

[4] Hans Stubbe, History of Genetics, (MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1972), P. 126 if. This is a translation by T. R. W. Waters of Kurze Geschichte der Genetik.... (Fischer, Jena, 1965, Second Edition).

[5] A. H. Sturtevant, A History of Genetics, (Harper & Row, New York, 1965) Chapter 2.

[6] Robert Olby, Origins of Mendelism, (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1985, Second Edition), Chap. 5.

[7] Orland E. White, Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. 56, 487-588 (1917).

[8] Stig Blixt in Handbook of Genetics, (Plenum Press, New York and London, 1974), Vol. 2, P. 181-221.

[9] C. D. Darlington, Cytology, (Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1965), p. 159.

[10] M. J. D. White, The Chromosomes, (Chapman and Hall, London, 1973, Sixth Edition), p. 42. On page 30 White points out that wheat has 7 chromosome sets, each with 6 chromosomes instead of 2, as is the case in common garden peas. This polyploidy enhances the complexity, for the even polyploids - those with 2, 4, 6,... chromosomes in a group - can reproduce sexually, while the odd polyploids can only reproduce by some form of parthenogenesis. This is another experimental mine field that Mendel managed to avoid.

[11] Joshua Lederberg, and E. L. Tatum, Gene Recombination in Escherichia coli, Nature 158, 558, (1946). E. L. Tatum, and Joshua Lederberg, Gene Recombination in the Bacterium Escherichia coli, J. Bacteriology 53, 673-684, (1947).

[12] H. Lamprecht, Arb.Steierm rkischen Landesbibliotek Joanneum Graz 10, 1-29 (1968), Die neue Genenkarte von Pisum und warum Mendel in semen Erbsen-kreuzungen keine Genenkoppelung gefunden hat; quoted in Blixt op. cit.

[13] Sam Singer, Human Genetics, (W. H. Freeman, San Francisco, 1978) p. 8. Singer - mistakenly according to contemporaneous knowledge - takes as a given that the traits that Mendel studied are determined by factors located on different pairs of chromosomes. His conclusion is that Mendel is not only careful, but lucky, too.

[14] E. B. Lewis, in Heritage from Mendel, (Univ. Wisc. Press, Madison, 1967), R. Alexander Brink, Ed., Chap. 3. On page 17 Lewis discusses the generalizations of Mendel, which he judges sound but not without exceptions such as that of linkage. He assumes his reader will recall that five of the seven pairs of traits used by Mendel are functionally interrelated, "in the sense of affecting the color or form of the seeds or seed pods; nevertheless, these five pairs, as well as the other two, are known to assort independently. This observation that the hereditary factors or genes are distributed throughout [one member of a chromosome pair] in a more or less random fashion with respect to their function in development remains valid for many of the known genes of higher organisms. It might well be called Mendel's third law. How fortunate for Mendel that his five functionally related genes did not happen to reside in [a closely linked structure of an operator and the genes it regulates]". In retrospect one sees that the pitfalls Mendel avoided were vicious. But we would be mean-minded, indeed, to chide Mendel's effort for the risks it took, rather than rejoicing in his success.

[15] L. C. Dunn, A Short History of Genetics, (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1965), p. 12. Dunn appears to assume that the 7 traits Mendel selected consisted in one gene pair from each of seven groups of linked genes. Such a selection has a probability of 7!/7⁷, or 1/163.4, of occurring randomly.

[16] Is it just the arrogance of a physicist that makes it appear to me that there is a hierarchy of etiological imperatives, starting with biologists at the base, then chemists, with physicists at the top?

[17] Lest the reader falsely conclude that my presence was sought by the prominent members of the physics department staff, I hasten to say that I never knew for certain why the Head of the Department - the M.I.T. administration is top down, authoritarian; no prissy Chairs - assigned me to those office spaces. I had a feeling that it could be solely a demonstration of his power, to use me to invade their spaces. Each of them had elegant, wood paneled office suites, with Sears' serving also as the administration center for the undergraduate physics courses, and over it and the academic staff his secretary, Barbara Thomas, reigned. As it turned out Hardy and Sears were graciously kind to me, and their robustly competent secretaries - Hardy's was Miss Bemen - seemed to enjoy looking out for a young professor. Hardy was full of stories about M.I.T. and Open House exhibits, and tricks played using optical magic, and spectrophotometry. Sears found in me an apt audience to display his latest illustration for the book he was always working on. The phase diagram for water took a lot of effort to get a form acceptable to himself, for example. I profited from their socializing, and from the insight to academic politics that I gained from watching them, and the activities involving them.

[18] Quite recently, and after this manuscript was written, a persuasive letter making these points using examples from the field of particle physics has been published in Physics Today; Harry J. Lipkin, Physics Today, 53, 15 (July 2000). In a letter that follows Lipkin's, Gustav Born again makes the case for his father, Max Born, having introduced Heisenberg to the algebra of matrix mechanics. Some historical facts of the development of physics seem to slip quickly from the collective memory of the physics community.