Abstract
Consider the process of sexual reproduction. Among the sperm of a male the cells differ in their genetic message, and the same is true for the reproductive cells in an ovary. As a consequence, the traits of descendents differ in many ways. As it depends on chance which of the reproductive cells combine to become a fertilized cell, the outcome cannot be predicted. Yet there is no chaos. If we count particular traits in a large number of descendents, we find some rules. For instance, we see that a trait known as “heterozygous” occurs in the descendents at a predictable ratio. The well-known rules by Mendel1 can best be formulated by using probability theory.
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© 1971 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg
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Batschelet, E. (1971). Probability. In: Introduction to Mathematics for Life Scientists. Springer Study Editions Biology, vol 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-96080-2_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-96080-2_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-06544-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-96080-2
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