A statistical model to explain the Mendel-Fisher controversy

DOI10.1214/10-STS342zbMATH Open1329.62094arXiv1104.2975OpenAlexW2006932077MaRDI QIDQ906526FDOQ906526

Authors: Ana M. Pires, João A. Branco 

Publication date: 22 January 2016

Published in: Statistical Science (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In 1866 Gregor Mendel published a seminal paper containing the foundations of modern genetics. In 1936 Ronald Fisher published a statistical analysis of Mendel's data concluding that "the data of most, if not all, of the experiments have been falsified so as to agree closely with Mendel's expectations." The accusation gave rise to a controversy which has reached the present time. There are reasonable grounds to assume that a certain unconscious bias was systematically introduced in Mendel's experimentation. Based on this assumption, a probability model that fits Mendel's data and does not offend Fisher's analysis is given. This reconciliation model may well be the end of the Mendel--Fisher controversy.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1104.2975

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zbMATH Keywords

geneticsethicsminimum distance estimateschi-square testsdistribution of \(p\)-values

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Parametric hypothesis testing (62F03) Applications of statistics to biology and medical sciences; meta analysis (62P10) Design of statistical experiments (62Kxx) History of mathematics in the 19th century (01A55) History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) History of statistics (62-03)

Cites Work

• Title not available (Why is that?)
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Cited In (9)

• R. A. Fisher's Contributions to Genetical Statistics
• Models and Statistical Inference: The Controversy between Fisher and Neyman–Pearson
• Fisher's Contributions to Genetics and Heredity, with Special Emphasis on the Gregor Mendel Controversy
• Kolmogorov's criteria and the verification of Mendel's heredity laws
• The questions of fit in the gregor mendel controversy
• Sums of possibly associated multivariate indicator functions: the Conway-Maxwell-multinomial distribution
• Modelling Populations: Pearson and Fisher on Mendelism and Biometry
• Frequency anomalies pertaining to Mendel's second experiment
• THE GENETIC VERSUS THE AXIOMATIC METHOD: RESPONDING TO FEFERMAN 1977

Uses Software

• R

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