In the frigid New York winter of 1910, experimental biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan etherized a family of fruit flies and began sorting through their sleeping forms. After a while he saw something unusual—a fly with white eyes. In all his time studying Drosophila melanogaster, Morgan had seen only red eyes, or more specifically, red compounds with 760 individual lenses. What confronted him now was a rare genetic mutant. He bred the fly, eventually yielding a cohort with those same ghostly features. His experiment established the material basis of heredity in the chromosome, providing an essential “How?” that had been missing from Darwin’s theory of evolution. This story is from Kinfolk Issue Twenty-Eight Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 24 Nahanaeli Schelling From finding beauty in the dryness of data, a business is born. Arts & Culture Issue 23 Becoming Wise “Cynicism is actually the laziest stance you could take.” What intelligent people still need to learn about the pursuit of wisdom. Arts & Culture Issue 22 Personality Tests: A Brief History From warfare to psych wards to the workplace, Harriet Fitch Little uncovers our long-standing fascination with personality tests. Arts & Culture Issue 22 Pattern & Repetition Science writer Philip Ball speaks on the intertwined relations of our brains and the patterns they perceive. Arts & Culture Issue 17 The Creative Impulse Is creativity something we're born with or something we learn from our environment? We speak to researcher Mei Tan to learn what position science has. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Alice Sheppard On dance as a channel to commune with the body—even when it hurts.
Arts & Culture Issue 24 Nahanaeli Schelling From finding beauty in the dryness of data, a business is born.
Arts & Culture Issue 23 Becoming Wise “Cynicism is actually the laziest stance you could take.” What intelligent people still need to learn about the pursuit of wisdom.
Arts & Culture Issue 22 Personality Tests: A Brief History From warfare to psych wards to the workplace, Harriet Fitch Little uncovers our long-standing fascination with personality tests.
Arts & Culture Issue 22 Pattern & Repetition Science writer Philip Ball speaks on the intertwined relations of our brains and the patterns they perceive.
Arts & Culture Issue 17 The Creative Impulse Is creativity something we're born with or something we learn from our environment? We speak to researcher Mei Tan to learn what position science has.
Arts & Culture Issue 47 Alice Sheppard On dance as a channel to commune with the body—even when it hurts.
