= Genetics
{wiki}
<Genetics> studies how <genes> are inherited, how their <alleles> vary, and how that variation contributes to <phenotypes>. Its central distinction is between an inherited description, the <genotype>, and what an <organism> actually expresses, the <phenotype>. Following <alleles> through a <pedigree> answers a family-level question; following <allele frequencies> through generations leads to <population genetics> and <evolution>.
The beauty of <Mendelian segregation> is that discrete inherited copies can generate predictable statistical patterns without making every offspring identical. A single <genetic locus> already connects <meiosis>, <probability> and observable variation. The <Hardy-Weinberg principle> then supplies a population baseline: it separates reshuffling inherited copies from processes such as <natural selection> that change their frequencies. These simple models are useful precisely because their assumptions can be stated and checked.
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