The Fly Room: The Story of the Scientists Who Discovered Genetics and Reinvented Evolution

William Dejong-Lambert

ISBN 10: 1606181564 / ISBN 13: 9781606181560

Published by The American Philosophical Society Press, 2026

Seller Inventory # 9781606181560

Synopsis:

The story of the scientists who invented genetics and proved the theory of evolution

The Fly Room tells the story of Nobel Prize-winning biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan’s laboratory at Columbia University where, in the early twentieth century, he presided over a handful of students and a roomful of fruit flies who taught him that everything he thought was true was wrong, and everything he thought was wrong was right.

Before Morgan’s time, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was regarded as a subject unworthy of serious scientific study―not something you would hear discussed in a laboratory. In its place rose the dark specter of eugenics, with its attendant sinister ambitions to create a superior human race.

But Morgan and his students, by experimenting with and breeding fruit flies, invented genetics, which would eventually lead to the refutation of the theory of eugenics and prove Darwin’s theory of evolution right. Meanwhile in Soviet Russia, a country convulsed by revolution, genetics came under attack, forcing researchers to seek refuge in the United States and discover for themselves the scientific breakthroughs taking place in Morgan’s laboratory.

Both a collective biography of the men and women who pioneered the field of genetics, as well as a history of how genetics was invented and proven to be the science of evolution, The Fly Room is a compelling read about a fascinating branch of science whose innovations benefit us to the present day.

About the Author: William deJong-Lambert is Professor of History at Bronx Community College, CUNY. He has published extensively on lysenkoism, eugenics and the evolutionary synthesis. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the American Philosophical Society, and he is the recipient of three Fulbright awards.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Fly Room: The Story of the Scientists ...
Publisher: The American Philosophical Society Press
Publication Date: 2026
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: New