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His main contribution involved germ plasm theory, at one time also known as Weismannism, [1] according to which inheritance (in a multicellular animal) only takes place by means of the germ cells—the gametes such as egg cells and sperm cells.
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Jun 11, 2018 · Weismann’s most influential contribution to biological thought was his theory of the continuity of the germ plasm, an explanation of heredity and development.
Germ-plasm theory, concept of the physical basis of heredity expressed by the 19th-century biologist August Weismann (q.v.). According to his theory, germ plasm, which is independent from all other cells of the body (somatoplasm), is the essential element of germ cells (eggs and sperm) and is the
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
August Weismann’s 1892 theory that inheritance is transmitted through eggs and sperm provided the biological mechanism for natural selection. In this full-lengt...
Jun 3, 2015 · Weismann's great contribution was the idea that germ-plasm — the name that he gave to the essential element of gametes, or eggs and sperm — carries the material of heredity from one...
- Jane Maienschein
- maienschein@asu.edu
- 2015
However, Weismann's views prevailed in the scientific world through the discovery of the chromosome, the rediscovery of Mendelian genetics around 1900, and, after his death in 1914, the subsequent neo-Darwinian synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s.
historical studies of Weismann deal with his impact on genetics, whereas a modern analysis of his evolutionary thought does not exist. It is my intent to present a scholarly account of Weismann's thought, in which his errors and failures are not suppressed but are recorded as honestly as his brilliant conceptual innovations.
