bateson co-discovered genetic linkage with reginald punnett, and he and punnett founded the "journal of genetics" in 1910. bateson also coined the term "epistasis" to describe the genetic interaction of two independent traits. so important from 1900 to 1910, he was almost a bystander for the next ten years because he refused to accept the role chromosomes played in genetics. at last, in 1921, a visit to t.h. morgan's fly lab convinced him, but by then he could no longer recover his influence.