Founding Fathers (of Genetics)
He’s known as the “Father of Genetics” for his experiments on pea plants that uncovered the basic laws of inheritance.
Who is Gregor Mendel?
This Marvel superhero gained his powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider.
Who is Spider-Man?
This UW–Madison alumnus is a rapper who studied marketing and signed with a record label while a senior in 2017.
Who is Yung Gravy?
Real news or fake news?: The Sonic Hedgehog gene helps shape early brain and limb development — and yes, it’s named after the Sega video game character.
What is real news
Like making a photocopy of a page from a recipe book — this process copies DNA into RNA.
What is transcription?
These two scientists are credited with discovering the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953.
Who are James Watson and Francis Crick?
This animated movie follows the adventures of a trash-compacting robot left to clean up Earth.
What is WALL-E?
This number is equal to the number of people have won a Nobel Prize and been, at least at some point, faculty in UW’s genetics department?
What is 2
In 2025, researchers found that a mutation in the gene ARHGAP36 on the X chromosome explains why most of these orange-colored pets are male.
What are cats?
When pieces of homologous chromosomes swap places during meiosis — creating genetic diversity.
What is crossing over (recombination)?
This woman’s X-ray diffraction image, known as “Photo 51,” was key evidence used to identify DNA’s helical shape.
Who is Rosalind Franklin?
This 1993 film featured cloned dinosaurs created using DNA extracted from fossilized mosquitoes.
What is Jurassic Park?
Before becoming a Super Bowl–winning quarterback and NFL superstar, this athlete played his final college season at UW–Madison, leading the Badgers to the 2012 Rose Bowl.
Who is Russell Wilson?
Real news or fake news?: The Disco Stu gene causes Drosophila fruit flies to grow tiny disco-ball-like eye structures under ultraviolet light.
What is fake news
This molecular system acts like genetic scissors — it can cut and edit DNA sequences.
What is CRISPR-Cas9 editing?
This scientist discovered that genes are located on chromosomes through his work with fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster).
Who is Thomas Hunt Morgan?
This real-life physicist was portrayed by Cillian Murphy in a 2023 film about the creation of the atomic bomb.
Who is J. Robert Oppenheimer?
This was the very first vitamin that was isolated at UW Madison
What is vitamin A
The U.K.’s National Health Service approved the world’s first CRISPR-based treatment for this inherited blood disorder that affects millions, particularly of African descent.
What is sickle cell disease?
This process repairs DNA by using the undamaged strand as a template.
What is complementary base repair (or DNA repair)?
This pair of scientists showed that DNA, not protein, is the molecule that carries genetic information, using bacteriophages in their famous 1952 experiment.
Who are Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase?
In Interstellar, this scientific phenomenon allows Cooper to communicate with his daughter across time through gravity.
What is a black hole (or gravitational singularity)?
The UW–Madison Genetics Department notes that in the early 1950s the work on unstable genetic loci in maize by R. A. Brink happened concurrently with Barbara McClintock’s transposon research.
Who is R. A. Brink?
The biotech startup Colossal Biosciences made headlines by engineering wolf pups with genetic traits of this Ice Age predator made famous by Game of Thrones
What is the dire wolf?
Abnormal patterns of this modification can lead to cancer by silencing tumor suppressor genes.
What is DNA methylation?