In Friendly Disagreement: Wilson, Morgan, and the Embryological Origins of the Gene Theory

Abstract

The foundations of American embryology and genetics were established by four former graduate students of Johns Hopkins University. Edmund Beecher Wilson ('81) and Thomas HuntMorgan ('90) interacted over a thirty year period to provide the foundations of genetics, while Edwin Grant Conklin ('91) and Ross Granville Harrison ('94) focused their studies on embryonic determination. Together, they founded the Journal of Experimental Zoology and were influential in framing the shape of American experimental zoology for decades to come. This essay will attempt to outline the interactions between Wilson and Morgan leading up to the formation of the gene theory, and it will try to place this controversy in the context of a larger conflict among experimental biologists of the first two decades of this century—the conflict over whether biological processes are effected by molecules in solution or by fixed microscopic morphological structures.

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