As an undergraduate at Columbia University Sturtevant worked in T.H. Morgan's famous flyroom. The book describes some of the early advances in genetics and the progress that Strutevant, Morgan, Mueller and others made. Remember this was before the world even knew what the genetic material was composed of and the genetic code. An amazing history lesson that puts the advances of Science in perspective and reading about these experiments and deductions it is little wonder that by "standing on the shoulders of giants," we have made so much progress.