Question

Who coined the term genetics?

Answer 1

The term genetics was coined in the year 1905. The word was originally used as an adjective ‘genetic’ predating the noun variant of the word. It was derived from the Greek word- "genesis" which means "origin", and it was first used in 1860 in a biological sense.

Complete answer: William Bateson was the first individual who used the term ‘genetics’ to study heredity. He was the chief populariser of Mendel’s ideas after the rediscovery of Mendel’s postulates in 1900 by three scientists Hugo de Vries, Erich von Tschermak and Carl Correns. Bateson was a British biologist who was born on 8 August 1861 and died on 8 February 1926. He published his book Materials in 1894. Bateson's work was published before the year 1900 and was systematically studied for the structural variation living organisms display and the studies of the mechanism of biological evolution. His works were strongly influenced by both Charles Darwin's and Francis Galton. Bateson also co-discovered the genetic linkage along with scientists Reginald Punnett and Edith Saunders. In 1910, he and Punnett founded the Journal of Genetics. Bateson also gave the term "epistasis" to define the genetic interaction between two independent loci.

Additional Information: William Bateson became the director of John Innes Horticultural Institution in 1910. During his time as the director at the John Innes Horticultural Institution, he started his works in the chromosome theory of heredity and then promoted the study of cytology.

Note: Bateson was born in Whitby on the Yorkshire coast. He was the son of William Henry Bateson, the Master of St John's College, Cambridge. He studied at Rugby School and at St John's College in Cambridge, where he graduated in Bachelor of Arts in 1883 with the first division in natural sciences.