Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic information of their parents. Through heredity, variations between individuals can accumulate and cause species to evolve by natural selection.

The chromosome theory of inheritance is credited to papers by Walter Sutton in 1902 and 1903, as well as to independent work by Theodor Boveri during roughly the same period. Boveri was studying sea urchins, in which he found that all the chromosomes had to be present for proper embryonic development to take place. Sutton's work with grasshoppers showed that …

Galton was a polymath who made important contributions in many fields, including meteorology (the anticyclone and the first popular weather maps), statistics (regression and correlation), psychology (synaesthesia), biology (the nature and mechanism of heredity), and criminology (fingerprints). Much of this was influenced by his penchant for counting and measuring.

Heredity and eugenics. The first theory of eugenics was developed in 1869 by Francis Galton (1822–1911), who used the then-popular concept of degeneration. He applied statistics to ...

A sex-determination system is a biological system that determines the development of sexual characteristics in an organism. Most organisms that create their offspring using sexual reproduction have two sexes.. In some species there are hermaphrodites. There are also some species that are only one sex due to parthenogenesis, the act of a female reproducing without …

A genetic disorder is a health problem caused by one or more abnormalities in the genome.It can be caused by a mutation in a single gene (monogenic) or multiple genes (polygenic) or by a chromosomal abnormality.Although polygenic disorders are the most common, the term is mostly used when discussing disorders with a single genetic cause, either in a gene or chromosome.

A blood type (also known as a blood group) is a classification of blood, based on the presence and absence of antibodies and inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells (RBCs). These antigens may be proteins, carbohydrates, glycoproteins, or glycolipids, depending on the blood group system.Some of these antigens are also present on the surface of other …

Social conditioning is the sociological process of training individuals in a society to respond in a manner generally approved by the society in general and peer groups within society. The concept is stronger than that of socialization, which is the process of inheriting norms, customs and ideologies.Manifestations of social conditioning are vast, but they are generally categorized …

Aristocracy (from Ancient Greek ἀριστοκρατίᾱ (aristokratíā), from ἄριστος () 'best', and κράτος (krátos) 'power, strength') is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the Greek aristokratíā, meaning 'rule of the best'.. At the time of the word's origins in ancient Greece ...

Huangdi (Chinese: 皇帝; pinyin: Huángdì), translated into English as Emperor, was the superlative title held by monarchs of China who ruled various imperial regimes in Chinese history. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was considered the Son of Heaven and the autocrat of all under Heaven.Under the Han dynasty, Confucianism replaced Legalism as the …