Introduction
In the module
on probability, we talked about Laws of
Probability that can be applied to, well, just about anything ... rolling dice or determining the
probability of survival, or playing the stock market, or genetics, to name a few. In this module,
we're going to talk about another approach to probability, which is much more specific to genetics,
called Punnett Squares. Punnett Squares were invented by one Reginald Punnett, a British geneticist
who also studied ribbon worms and played cricket with G. H. Hardy of Hardy-Weinberg fame, one of
the true big cheeses in the genetics world.
In this module, you'll see how Punnett Squares are really just a graphical way of reproducing the basic rules of probability.
You'll also see how to predict the phenotypic outcome from a variety of multi-loci genotypic crosses -- in other words, how to predict what the kids will look like.
Clipart for this module thanks to Arthur's Clipart, FreeImages.co.uk, Clipart Heaven
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