Beyond the Gene

The scope and significance of cytoplasmic inheritance has been the subject of one of the longest controversies in the history of genetics. Jan Sapp offers a new perspective on the history of genetics, as he explores the oppositions which have shaped theoretical thinking about heredity and evolution throughout the century: materialism/vitalism, reductionism/holism, preformation/epigenesis, neo-Darwinism/neo-Lamarckism, gradualism/saltationism.