Edited by
Anne Fagot-Largeault
Shahid Rahman
Juan Manuel Torres

2007

Defined as the branch of biology dealing with heredity and the mechanics of gene transmission from one generation to the next, genetics first made its appearance on the scientific scene at the beginning of the 20th century when H. de Vries, C. Correns and E. von Tschermak re-discovered the extraordinary experimental work of Mendel. It was this re-discovery that in just a few years gave rise to the unprecedented and explosive development of a new experimental approach in biology which was to provide the foundations of our modern understanding of medical and evolutionary biological phenomena – a revolution, one might say.