WEBVTT - Ridiculous History: A Humorous History of Genetics 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:06.560 Have you ever thought about how incredibly complex I spit is. 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:11.280 It may only be water, but just aliva isn't simple. 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:17.440 That remaining one holds incredibly meaningful information that could change everything. 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:21.239 And I'm not just talking about your family treat Hi. 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.079 I'm Barrett to day Thurston. And on this season of 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:26.720 Spit and I Heart Radio Podcast with twenty three and Me, 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:31.040 we explore how DNA isn't just about ancestry, it can 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:38.640 also be key to understanding your health. Hello, and welcome back. 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:46.680 History is beautiful, brutal, and often ridiculous. You don't think so, 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.000 talk to the host of our next episode, Ben Bowling 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:53.080 and Noel Brown. Ben and Noel are the hosts of 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.240 the crazy, fun and informative podcast Ridiculous History, where each 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:00.200 week they dive into some of the weirdest stories from 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.480 across the span of human civilization. That's a lot of 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:07.280 raw material. In this episode, Ben and Nol set out 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:11.440 to unravel the history of genetic research, which surprisingly traces 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:13.920 all the way back to the year five thousand BC. 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.680 Back then, back in the day, humans were practicing something 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:22.280 called selective breeding and early acknowledgment of genetic traits and 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.240 a willingness to isolate and express them, whether it was 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:29.920 growing crops, breeding livestock, or breeding humans. Now, what started 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.880 as more of a philosophical question what makes you you? 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:37.040 What makes me me? Led to a fascinating and yes, 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:42.000 sometimes ridiculous history of an incredible scientific achievement. So when 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.120 the guys took a twenty three in me test, they 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:47.560 got them thinking. Nowadays, it's easier than ever to learn 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.600 more about your past and possible future. Through the power 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:54.400 of genetic testing, we have the power to unlock information 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.080 on our ancestry, traits, and health, just to name a few. 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.440 But how did this world changing science evolved from the 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:05.760 work of ancient philosophers and Augustinian friars all the way 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.600 to the cutting edge innovations of the modern day. Let's 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.640 listen in as the guys present their research, along with 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.800 their own personal experiences with twenty three and me, what 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.600 they learned about their health, and what the report tells 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:25.519 them about their own Ridiculous history. Ridiculous History is a 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:52.200 production of I Heart Radio. Welcome back to the show, 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:56.440 Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much for tuning in. 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:58.920 Uh Let's give a shout out to our one and 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.120 only demand the myth jen super producer Mr Max Williams, 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:08.359 and they called me Ben Uh joined as always with 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:12.760 Mr Noel Brown. Uh Noel. We like like most people, 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:16.720 we like to think of ourselves as fairly distinct here 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.480 in the in the mass of humanity, right. Oh yeah, 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.919 we're special boys. There we go, there we go. We uh. We, 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:30.080 like many other people throughout ancient history to the modern day, 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:34.280 have spent a lot of time wondering where we came from, 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:39.040 wondering about our origins as individuals. And like many people, 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:43.280 you know, we we know a little bit about our ancestry. 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:48.600 We don't know everything, however, and that's why we were 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:52.600 interested to team up with twenty three and Me. Nowadays, 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.800 you know, it's easier than ever to learn about your 0:03:55.840 --> 0:04:00.200 past through the power of genetic testing, and no I 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.240 have to ask and Max you as well. Growing up, 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.480 did you, guys ever have a member of your family 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:10.080 who was like obsessed with their genealogy? I didn't really personally, 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.320 and in fact, it wasn't until uh no spoilers yet, 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:14.920 but that I took the twenty three and Me a 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.240 test that I really had much sense of my heritage 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.400 at all. So this was super eye opening and fascinating 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.440 process for me. Um. But no, I definitely am aware 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:26.440 of folks that take that very seriously and kind of 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:31.560 consider themselves like armchair you know, genealogists or anthropologists or 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:33.560 what have you. But there was really nobody in my 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:35.919 family that that much mentioned it when I was growing up. 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.360 How about you, guys. Yeah, I actually have a pretty 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:42.719 extensive story about this one. It's uh so, my paternal grandfather, 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:44.719 to my great grandfather and my dad's side of the family, 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.880 he was adopted in the early nineteen hundreds and they 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:50.200 lost all of his adoption papers, so there was really 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.680 like no idea where that'side of my family came from. 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:55.479 It's just been kind of things. So my aunt has 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:58.039 been spending with the last no joke, like thirty plus 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.200 years just trying to dig up some and like she 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:03.400 recently did a test like this and it's got like 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.200 some more answers, but it's been up. It's been like 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.520 a kind of like a lifelong pursuit of hers right there. Wow, Yeah, 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:13.600 I had I had something similar because of the controversy 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:16.680 surrounding my paternal line, the Malungeon side of my family. 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:22.080 Uh So, there were times where people were actively hiding there. Um, 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.360 I guess they're perceived membership of that group and as 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.320 a result, they're hiding some of their genealogy. But of 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:33.240 course as time went on, people became less hesitant, you 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:36.920 know about acknowledging the past and the truth. And now 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:42.440 here in two it is easier than ever for people to, 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.480 as we said, learn more about what led to you 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:50.560 being here a fellow ridiculous historian listening to this show today. 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:55.360 But today's question, how did the world changing science of 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.960 genetic testing and our concepts of DNA? How did they 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:03.719 evolve from the word of ancient philosophers and Augustinian friars 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:08.359 all the way to these cutting edge innovations. In today's show, 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.480 we're going to unravel some of the history of genetic research, 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.320 and along the way we might share some of our 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:21.040 own personal experiences. Because spoiler folks, uh Noel and I 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.000 each took some test with twenty three and me, Uh Noel, 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.320 I believe this was your second test with the group. Yeah, 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.240 it was, uh And let me tell you a lot 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:33.080 of things have changed for the better. It was probably 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:34.880 a couple of years ago that I took the test 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.360 previously and the one that we took for this episode. 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:42.400 This partnership just had way more granular information, including stuff 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:46.640 about potential health risks, markers that are contained you know, 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:50.480 within my genetic code, our genetic code, your genetic code, um, 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.200 that can give you indications as to whether you're predisposed 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.400 to certain medical conditions. So it was very very illuminating me. 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:58.159 The last one was great too, but it really feels 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.200 like they've added a lot more bang for the buck 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:03.760 and a lot more features, a lot more results that 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.719 are very meaningful. Not to mention, um, I believe Ben, 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.520 you and I have some interesting kind of shared results 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.200 that we will also say for the end. Yes, yes, 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:16.200 you might be surprised by how this sort of technology 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.360 can connect you with people you never imagine yourself connected with. 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:26.120 But let's let's start there, right, What makes you you? Okay, 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:28.920 So here's the lay of the last. People are asking 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:33.240 what makes me me? What makes you you? Well before 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:37.880 the concept of microscopes, well before DNA was even a thing. 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:44.040 The history of this, like the the ancestry of ancestry 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:47.880 research and d NA starts all the way back in 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:51.800 like five thousand b C, which I think might surprise 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:53.880 a lot of people, Oh for sure. And I mean, 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.760 you know, it was really more of a philosophical question 0:07:57.400 --> 0:07:59.600 for a long long time. I mean, there was certainly 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:05.640 observations made towards various traits and things that family members possessed, 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:07.800 but the whole idea of like who who am I, 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:10.480 where do I connect in the universe and you know, 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.200 life and all of that was much more of a 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:16.600 of a philosophical question. But you're right then as early 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:20.440 as five thousand b c. E UM humans were practicing 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.640 something called selective breeding. So there was an acknowledgment of like, okay, 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:27.760 how do we isolate these traits and figure out how 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:32.520 to express them, whether it be livestock or or crops 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.959 or what have you, or even you know, humans, There 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.719 was a certain amount of selective breeding that came with 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.679 like in breeding, uh, and you know, the idea of 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.640 maintaining a bloodline. And as we know that, there were 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:49.800 some pretty catastrophic consequences to those um activities. But you know, 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:52.839 their head was kind of in the right place. They 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.160 just really didn't quite know what they were doing, but 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:57.480 they definitely did when it came to the livestock and 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:03.280 the crops to make more robust crops and more hearty livestock. Yeah, yeah, 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:06.720 a k A. The reason you have things like corn, 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.640 you know what I mean, the reason you have domesticated 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:13.160 crops as they're called. And there's something really interesting about that. 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.600 I can't remember who I was speaking to, but we 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.360 were talking about the old question what is the most 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.600 successful form of life on the planet. And you know, 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.319 a lot of people would just say humans. But if 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:31.280 you think about it, the idea of wheat being domesticated 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:35.400 or corn being domesticated, it sounds like humans won that game. 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:37.600 But if you look at it from the perspective of 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.160 the plant, they kind of one because now they're spread 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:45.280 across the planet. I thought that was kind of trippy. Yeah, totally. 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:49.319 I actually heard an interview with an entomologist who specifically 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:54.000 um focuses on flies. UM and flies. He believes we're 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.559 one of the most successful species in the history of 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:01.600 the world because of their ability to kind of bob 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.000 and weave and and and dodge things and just you know, 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.440 they're one of the most successful aerialists on the planet. 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:12.040 And also they essentially feed on dead stuff, which there's 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.480 always gonna be plenty of. Also, I believe they've been around, 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.800 uh much longer than humans. So while we may be 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:22.240 successful and good at, like, you know, making stuff and 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:24.720 figuring things out, it's all kind of self serving and 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:26.480 in the end of the day, we're only really a 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.720 blip in the historical record. Oh yeah, we're like a 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.600 fad to crocodiles, you know what I mean, We're like 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:37.480 POGs to crocodiles and alligators. But but you were you 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.600 a pog guy? Were you a pargman? No? I had 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:42.760 some POGs, but I wouldn't say I was a parkman. 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.440 I just I had enough to play the game, and 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:49.199 then I didn't get super into the game. I actually 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:51.800 like the art more. That's right. I barely understood how 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:53.720 the game was play. I just know there were slammers 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.120 and they were the POGs, and I mean it was 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.679 kind of like Tiddley winks you want other people's POGs 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.960 by slam in them in a stack. I don't know. 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:04.040 It doesn't matter. We're not here to talk about pole. 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:08.120 We are here to talk about is Pangenesis. Yes, let's 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.680 talk about a little bit about the great philosophers you 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:15.920 mentioned earlier. So let's go to Aristotle Aristotle is one 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.120 of the first people on record who said, you know what, 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:25.520 I wonder if traits acquired throughout an organism's lifetime can 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:29.320 be transmitted to their offspring. Essentially, and not to be 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:34.360 too to gruesome here, folks, but essentially, the question is 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:39.240 if I took five people and I cut off a 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.920 different finger on each one of their right hands, would 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:46.600 their children also be missing the same finger when they 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:49.959 were born because that trait was acquired during that person's 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:55.360 unfortunate lifetime. He's kind of added to this guessing game 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.320 with this theory the way you just mentioned Pangenesis, which 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:03.880 sort of just scribes how these traits could be passed 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:09.000 on through particles called give us, which sort of encapsulated 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:11.679 the traits and then allowed them to be transmitted to 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:15.560 reproductive cells. And then he also thought about what he 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:20.319 called the form giving principle, and a lot of the 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.680 stuff you're gonna hear from these ancient thinkers, by the way, 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:27.640 is in principle not super duper far off. Yeah, he 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:31.600 believed in something called the form giving principle that was 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:34.680 a property of an organism that was able to be 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:39.960 transmitted through bodily fluid specifically semen, which he believed was 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:43.839 kind of like blood, but a more pure form of 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:47.400 the stuff. And also we believed that the mother's minstreul 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.960 blood was another one of these UH form giving fluids. 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:55.080 He believed that this interacted in the womb to direct 0:12:55.480 --> 0:13:00.320 uh the early development of an organism. M M. So again, 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:04.160 you can you can see where UH, someone working with 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.760 the technology at the time could have reasonably started making 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:14.040 these suppositions. But Pythagoras, Aristotle, they weren't the only folks 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:18.120 who were thinking through this. Hippocrates and Epicurus also had 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:21.800 their own takes on the idea of heredity. Heredity is 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:25.160 just the passing on of traits from parents to offspring, 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:29.600 whether that's through sexual reproduction or through a sexual reproduction. 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:35.920 And it's weird because hippocrates theory is sort of is 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:41.000 kind of similar to Darwin's later ideas that involved hereditary 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:45.760 material collecting from throughout the body. But again, one thing 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.400 we wanna be careful of here is we want to 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:53.760 avoid just focusing on the ancient Western philosophers, because people 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:58.680 in India and China we're thinking about this too, that's right, 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:03.160 And the Sharraka Samita that was written or at least 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:08.840 a distributed around three Ancient Indian medical writers observed the 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:12.560 characteristics of the child were determined by what they saw 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.320 as four distinct factors, the first being those from the 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:19.280 mother's reproductive material, second from the father's sperm, and the 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:22.800 third from the diet of the pregnant mother. Uh, and 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:27.480 the fourth being those accompanying the soul. So, while there 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:30.480 were some of these do feel pretty connected to modern 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:35.160 scientific understanding of reproduction, that fourth one kind of imparts 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.560 a more religious characteristic as well. Yeah, yeah, one through 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.920 three you cannot along home going, okay, uh huh sure. 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.200 And then number four is where we see just how 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:51.880 how inextricably intertwined. Uh, the ideas of religion were with 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.560 the ideas of medicine. You know, it's funny, but the 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.280 idea of things becoming attached to the soul as it 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:05.720 enters the fetus, what does that remind you of? Uh? Oh, scientology. 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:09.920 I was thinking cloud Atlas reincarnation, but yeah, well those 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:11.880 are all kind of in the same wheelhouse. But I 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.360 mean it's the idea of like negative things becoming attached 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:18.480 to the soul from birth to carry the follow you 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:20.520 along for the rest of your life and cause you 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.240 to you to develop all kinds of problems that that 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.840 just reminds me of that that concept within scientology, not 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:32.240 that l. Ron Hubbard was anything but original, you know. Anyhow, 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:35.000 I walked around the corner for that for that slight this. 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.960 But let's jump around in time, Like when you hear this, 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:41.960 when you thought about this episode right as you tuned in, 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:46.680 you were probably thinking of Charles Darwin and his famous 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.960 eighteen fifty nine banger on the Origin of Species full 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.360 title on the Origin of Species by Means of Natural 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.200 Selection or the preservation and favored races and the struggle 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.120 for life. We'll get to that in a second. Darwin 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:03.120 is a recurring guests on our show. But if we're 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:07.240 talking about genetic research and we're talking about the full 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.360 scope of this, you can kind of divide it into 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:14.600 two broad eras all the stuff before a guy named 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:20.240 Gregor Johann Mendel, and all this stuff after this Friar. Yeah, 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:24.880 that's right. Modern genetics really started with the work of 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.720 this man who was an Augustinian Friar. He was really 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:33.240 into the idea of propagating pea plants, like you know, 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.000 like English little green peas. When he published his work 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:41.960 specifically on the reproductive qualities of these little fellas in 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:47.360 eighteen sixty six, he established the theory of Mendelian inheritance UM. 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.720 He became the first person to lay out a scientific 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:55.960 and mathematically founded uh science of genetics, even before it 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.680 was even called that. And this is legit. You can 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:05.520 find it in his Encyclopedia Britannic Entry, which personally I 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.359 thought did a good job of breaking it down in 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.640 an understandable way. So let's get in the nuts and bolts. 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.680 Strap in for some math. Don't worry, we're gonna. We're gonna. 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.080 We'll be right there with you. Try to make it easy. Okay, 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:22.960 matth mass me up. Then let's math up. So the 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.879 reason Mindel wants to study the p plant, the edible 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:31.200 p or pisso sativum, is because it had a lot 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:36.760 of distinct varieties. It was easy to control, you know, 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:39.280 like easy to grow, but then also easy to control 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:44.200 how the plants pollinate. And there was a high proportion 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.439 of successful seed germin nations, which means you know, it 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.320 was uh. If you were making something new or trying 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.679 to attract something, you had a higher than average likelihood 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.280 of that plant actually growing to pass the seed stage. 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.280 So he tested UH for for about two years, from 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.160 eighteen fifty four to fifty six. He tested thirty four 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:09.440 different varieties for what he called the constancy of their traits. 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.080 And when he wanted to see how these things transmitted, 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:17.199 he chose seven traits that he thought were expressed in 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:20.520 a distinctive manner. And it's stuff that's like a lot 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:24.399 of it's stuff that's visually apparent to him. So stuff 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:28.320 like tall plants and short plants. What colors are their seeds? 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:33.439 Green or yellow? So he referred to these kind of 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:40.520 alternate versions UM as contrasted characters. UH. He also referred 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.680 to them as character pairs UM. And you know, this 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.960 is very similar to what we talked about in ancient times, 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.560 the idea of kind of cross breeding different things to 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:55.720 create a strengthened single traits. He would cross varieties that 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:58.720 were the same except for one trait. So, for example, 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.959 tall my be crossed with short UM and then there 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.240 would become a generation of hybrids, which he referred to 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.840 as f one. That generation would display the character of 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:12.840 one variety but not that of the other. UH. And 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:16.119 he believed, or at least using terms that he developed, 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:18.360 one of the characters was dominant and the other one 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.720 was recessive. This this, this checks out with what we 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:24.040 know today right in terms of like eye color and 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:25.520 all of that stuff. We have more into that in 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:27.960 a bit, but he was definitely barking up the right 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:34.760 genetic tree. So in the offspring that he raised from 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.600 all of these crossed hybrids, which he referred to as 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:41.399 second generation or F two, he would see the recessive 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:45.959 trade appearing. And then he noted that entirely third of 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:50.400 them had the original heritable traits while two thirds were 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.840 of that hybrid arrangements you know, or rather you know, 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:57.600 presented the more of the hybrid kind of qualities. So 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:00.320 he yeah, maybe, man, what don't you you you kind 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:02.159 of did the research on the math here, So why 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.520 don't you take us home here with like kind of 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:09.000 the solution. Oh for sure. So this goes to uh 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:14.800 Gregor's major discovery. He says, Look, after I've read these 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:19.560 successive generations of plants, just as you describe, Noel, I'm 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.959 seeing by the time I get to the descendants of 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:26.000 the dominant group that I can rewrite that three to 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:29.119 one ratio. You know that kind of dominant to recessive 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.800 appearance ratio. I can rewrite it to one to two 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:36.240 to one, and by this we mean fifty percent of 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:40.880 that second generation we're true breeding. Fifty percent we're still hybrid. 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:44.000 In a in a way, he was. He finally he 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:47.040 was arriving at an understanding of what we call dominant 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:52.199 and recessive genes today. This major discovery probably wouldn't have 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:56.440 been made by his predecessors because they didn't grow statistically 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:01.679 significant populations of testing material, which is a very cold 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.480 way to say living things, and they didn't follow the 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:11.119 individual characters or characteristics separately to establish their relationships to 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:15.160 each other overall. So this is big, big stuff, right, 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:20.600 this is world changing stuff. He publishes it, and everyone 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:23.840 ignores him. Everyone sort of ignores him. It comes out 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:26.840 in like a not very well known scientific journal. Most 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:30.000 of the scientific community at large isn't aware of it. 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:33.320 And if you're talking about heredity at this time, you 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:35.720 are much more likely to be in a slaughter or 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:40.879 a cafe talking about Darwin's hot button theory of evolution 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.880 by natural selection. And uh he also Darwin, we should say, 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:48.520 wasn't super perfect aside from his culinary taste, which we're 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:52.480 ambitious check out weird historical flexes uh to learn more. 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:55.879 He uh, he had a theory that not all his 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:59.199 theories widely accepted. His own theory of heredity, which she 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:01.879 had called pancha out assists as well, and just didn't 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:06.520 really didn't really fly. Uh. So to find the next 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:08.359 part of the story, we have to fast forward to 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:11.879 eighteen eighty three. Let's just remember that, I mean, reading 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:14.359 through this now and talking about this now, we're so 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:18.560 many echoes of what we know to have been determined 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:20.600 to be true and accurate. So it's just like, well, 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:22.720 why wouldn't people pay attention to this? But at the 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:26.119 time it was like very out there right, like it 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:28.919 would not have been connecting with like the sort of 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:32.520 traditional scientific thought of the time. And it's just one 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:36.320 guy kind of like breeding pea plants and and espousing 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:40.000 these kind of like whacka doo notions of traits and 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:42.639 qualities in offspring, So would not have been like an 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:46.720 easy cell necessarily which you write them. If we pressed 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:49.760 the fast forward button into eighteen eighty three, who got 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:54.840 a man named August Weissman who was an evolutionary biologist 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:59.960 from Germany who was making waves by breeding mice after 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:03.119 are chopping off their tails like three blind mice style. 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:08.960 But presumably you know, for science, for science little yeah, yeah, 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:13.360 he uh. He did this for reasons, as he assured 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:17.760 the mice police. Uh. Mainly, even though this sounds ghoulish, 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:21.800 there was something important to it. He wanted to disprove 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:28.520 this popular idea of lamarchism, the concept, like we said, 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:33.679 similar to the ancient philosophy concept that physical characteristics of 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:39.040 apparent organism can be carried through to the offspring. So 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:43.159 when mice with amputated tales gave birth to mice with 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:47.919 absolutely normal tales, they proved a crucial point. So we 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:50.280 don't the names of those mice are lost to history, 0:23:50.359 --> 0:23:53.600 but thank you, now we we do know a very 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:57.600 interesting field that's more in the realm of psychology today. Epogenetics, 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:01.119 the idea that trauma can be um, you know, carried 0:24:01.240 --> 0:24:05.040 or passed down through generations. So in theory, the trauma 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:08.159 of having their tails chopped off could have been you know, 0:24:08.280 --> 0:24:11.560 carried to their offspring. Yeah. That's a great point, man, 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:15.920 because epigenetics is the study of the way gene expression 0:24:15.960 --> 0:24:20.840 has changed, like what is more active in your genetic 0:24:20.880 --> 0:24:24.680 code instead of like your actual genes getting altered. There's 0:24:24.720 --> 0:24:27.679 a great study about starvation and World War two that 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:30.959 goes to this. Epigenetics is like still very much the 0:24:31.000 --> 0:24:35.000 forefront of genetic science today. Yeah, that is a good point. 0:24:35.040 --> 0:24:38.160 Maybe the mice were traumatized, certainly possible. Um, but let's 0:24:38.160 --> 0:24:40.879 get into some more breakthroughs. Here are some names that 0:24:40.960 --> 0:24:44.760 might ring a bell, Watson and Cricky. There's like a 0:24:44.920 --> 0:24:48.080 biopic about these guys. I think Jeff Goldbloom played Watson 0:24:48.280 --> 0:24:51.400 or Craig. I can't remember which Gary played both of them. 0:24:51.680 --> 0:24:55.800 Maybe certainly possible, yeah, or like, yeah, Daniel de Lewis 0:24:55.800 --> 0:24:58.720 played every character in the whole movie. Um, but yeah, 0:24:58.960 --> 0:25:01.199 they are you know those names like leave it if 0:25:01.200 --> 0:25:04.320 you don't know exactly what they did because they are, uh, 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:07.960 the American biologists that are largely created Well, they are 0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:12.639 credited with discovering DNA in the nineteen fifties. But you know, 0:25:12.680 --> 0:25:15.200 as is off of the case with science though, timing 0:25:15.280 --> 0:25:19.320 is everything. Who's first to market with something it is 0:25:19.359 --> 0:25:21.880 not necessarily the same as like who actually discovered the things. 0:25:21.920 --> 0:25:24.600 So DNA was in fact first identified in the late 0:25:24.640 --> 0:25:27.480