[...]... with multiple-flower stems At the time it was believed that heredity was always a matter of a balance being struck— thus the crossing of a tall plant with a short one would be expected to produce a medium height plant But that was not what happened The crossing of a tall plant with a short one always produced tall plants in the next generation Nor did the crossing of plants with yellow pods and plants... statement: “I have never taken an astronomy course.” Levy is obviously proud of being an amateur But it is not a matter of being proud because he has become a very famous amateur He has always felt that amateur astronomers are a particularly congenial group, the kind of people who become knit together as members of an extended family Beyond that, in an interview with Robert Reeves for the magazine Astronomy,... released inflate the coma, or nucleus, from a modest few kilometers in diameter to a size that may equal that of Earth itself—and that, of course, makes them potentially visible to us A dust tail forms, sometimes fan-shaped, sometimes forming long, curving streaks An ion, or gas, tail may also develop, and these tails can change their appearance rapidly, just as the coma itself may send off spectacular... meaning for Levy Although it was the twenty-first comet Levy had discovered on his own or in conjunction with others, this one was a celestial object on a scale and of an importance that even professionals usually can only dream about For an amateur like David Levy, having his name attached to it was the culmination of a lifelong fascination with comets Levy was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1948 In interviews,... shape In her view, and that of other specialists, a mistranslation from the German is at fault, and what Mendel was really looking at were actual shapes, round and angular In addition, the third characteristic, seed coat color, sometimes appears as flower color He did start out with flower color, but apparently realized that flower color was linked to other characteristics, and thus added, and paid... training than anything else, and that would make it possible for him to apply a mathematical rigor to his experiments with pea plants that was highly unusual for the period He also studied some botany, but this was a subject that caused him particular problems Because he was a farm boy, he had an ingrained knowledge of plants that caused him to balk at various academic formulations When a student refuses... from Earth for millennia to come However, about 160 of these comets are periodic in nature They have been trapped by the gravity of one of the larger planets, usually Jupiter, or the sun itself, and will reappear in a time frame ranging from as much as 200 years to as little, in one case, as 3 years When a comet approaches the sun, the ices that hold it together start to vaporize, and the gases that are... monastery for more than two decades, and such work was seen as a potential benefit to agriculture in general, and far more seemly than breeding generations of animals Mendel is reputed to have commented, with amusement, that the bishop failed to grasp that plants also had sex lives The reproductive mechanisms of plants are in fact quite varied Some species have specifically male and specifically female... perfect future humans—that all those headline-grabbing aspects of genetics should be traced back to a monk growing peas in a monastery garden is galling to some professionals But any doubts have been overwhelmed by the fact that Mendel’s laws hold true A mere amateur began it all, while many of the great minds of his own time were on the wrong track Rows of peas, in a sunny garden, in a special greenhouse,... gardening for its own sake that even this preliminary stage must have brought its satisfactions Once he was certain that the plants were stable down through several generations, he began crossing plants carrying each of the seven traits with other plants carrying the opposite trait Plants that produced round seeds were crossed with plants bearing angular seeds, tall plants with short ones, single-flower . also studied some botany, but this was a subject that caused him particular problems. Because he was a farm boy, he had an ingrained knowledge of plants that caused him to balk at various academic. been profes- sionally trained in a given discipline at an academic institution. If you do not have a degree, and usually an advanced degree, establishment scientists will regard you as an amateur. In. had a reputation for liberalism, and Abbot Napp was particularly forward-looking. Born into a wealthy local family, he had very good connections with the leaders of secular society in Moravia,