Dean writes
> you can read the first bunch of pages online [of the Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping]
So I did. On the first page, I noted the following errors:
> Honey bees are the most studied creatures, second only to humans
Easily disproved, using Google search:
homo sapiens About 11,600,000 results
mus musculus About 5,520,000 results
apis mellifera About 821,000 results
Using Google Scholar search:
homo sapiens 162,000
mus musculus 85,100
apis mellifera 58,800
> Gregor Mendel's discoveries described the genetic crossings of nearly every life form on the planet
The term gene was not coined until the 20th century, after Mendel's death. But Mendelian inheritance can hardly said to apply to "nearly every life form on the planet" (see: asexual reproduction) and it scarcely describes the gamut of heritable systems which are being studied at present (see: "Evolution in Four Dimensions" Jablonka & Lamb).
In fact, another scientist working with flowers made a significant breakthrough on this front:
> When Professor Richard Jorgensen, a plant scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, tried to make his petunia flowers a deeper shade of purple, he had little idea that he was about to find the key to one of the hidden mysteries of life. Nor could he have anticipated that his petunia observation would become the basis of one of the most promising weapons in the war against viruses and cancer. In pursuit of this interest in basic biology, he decided he would try to make purple petunia flowers even more purple by injecting them with the gene for pigment coloration. To his surprise, the flowers bloomed white. Instead of the two sets of pigment-producing genes complementing each other, they seemed to interact by turning themselves off. (see: RNA interference)
Pete
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