(Note that I have only seen an animated walkthrough of this program (less than a demo))

This program lets you simulate genetics experiments using a variety of different species. According to the literature accompanying the demo, you can follow up to seven traits at once, and the program will simulate monohybrid and dihybirid inheritance, dominant and recessive alleles, sex-linkage, different levels of dominance, and crossing-over. The phenotypes of each individual are shown in cute color pictures on the screen, and to cross two individuals you simply grab them with the mouse. You can also get graphs or spreadsheets of the number of offspring in different classes, have the program calculate Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and do gene-mapping. In addition, there is a 'genetic engineering' feature which lets you go into the genome of an individual and change its chromosomes.

I cannot give a real evaluation of this program since all I have seen is an animated demo. If the program lives up to its promise in the demo, however, it should be one of the nicest of the simulated genetics programs. The pictures are quite cute, and there seems to be enough features to do a wide range of experiments, although some of the features (such as the genetic engineering capability) might make it too easy to ''cheat''. Although the user interface looks fairly well designed in the demo, I can't tell without actually playing with it. All in all, if this program performs as advertised then it should be a very nice addition to an introductory genetics class.

Computer: Macintosh, Windows

Source: Logal, Suite 9A, 125 Cambridgepark Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140, 800-564-2587 (FAX 617-491-5885). URL: http://www.logal.com
. Demo CD available with animations showing all Logal products.

Cost: High

Last update 22nd of January 1996