Thoughts about genetics
It's sometimes frightening to think about how lives can be affected by things which people have little to no understanding about. I was reading a genetics site the other day and there was a section for questions about the inheritability of eye color, hair color, handedness and various other things. The amount of people who didn't even grasp the simplified basics of hair & eye color was scary to me and goodness knows the blood typing was a big issue too.
I've actually known people who had these things break up families and cause suspicion and strife b/c they don't know how two dark haired people ended up with a blond child, or someone with type B had a baby that was an O. I guess I assumed that this part of genetics was fairly well understood in at least the simplified terms using mendels squares. I learned it in high school and am always a bit baffled when I encounter people who don't seem to have been exposed to it at all. Considering the possible consequences for that lack of understanding you'd think it would be taught in depth.
I also don't get people who did learn about inheritance patterns and still insist on rely on common sense knowledge that is plain out wrong. Maybe it's because this is an area of science that I personally find fascinating that I don't get others not being as giddy as I am over the ways people are predictable and not in their patterns of inheritance. Who would have guessed for instance that 5'3" me and 5' 6" ex would have kids that are close to 6'.
I've actually known people who had these things break up families and cause suspicion and strife b/c they don't know how two dark haired people ended up with a blond child, or someone with type B had a baby that was an O. I guess I assumed that this part of genetics was fairly well understood in at least the simplified terms using mendels squares. I learned it in high school and am always a bit baffled when I encounter people who don't seem to have been exposed to it at all. Considering the possible consequences for that lack of understanding you'd think it would be taught in depth.
I also don't get people who did learn about inheritance patterns and still insist on rely on common sense knowledge that is plain out wrong. Maybe it's because this is an area of science that I personally find fascinating that I don't get others not being as giddy as I am over the ways people are predictable and not in their patterns of inheritance. Who would have guessed for instance that 5'3" me and 5' 6" ex would have kids that are close to 6'.
Comments
Post a Comment