About this site
A companion to Theoretical Physics — essays and notes on the science and theory of inheritance, and on the phenomena at the edges of biology where the evidence is partial and the questions are still open.
The site is a personal notebook. Some entries discuss accepted modern genetics — epigenetics, gene splicing, cloning. Others take seriously the older or stranger ideas (vitalism, pangenesis, atavism) without insisting they're right or wrong, only that the questions they raise haven't all been answered.
Recent essays
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Rüdiger Wilhelm — a fictional life
A theoretical geneticist in Düsseldorf during the rise and fall of the Third Reich, working at the intersection of genetics, neuroscience, physics, and philosophy. The opening of a novel in progress.
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Three theories defined — Pangenesis, Epigenetics, Vitalism
Working definitions of three of the most interesting frameworks that have been proposed to explain how inheritance and life actually work.
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A list of theories worth taking seriously
From epigenetics to atavism — a running list of the theories and phenomena this site will return to.