Final answer:
The term for pseudoscience related to inheritable traits is eugenics, a discredited approach contrasting with the scientific study of genetics, which is the legitimate field that investigates how traits are inheritable and passed on through generations.
Step-by-step explanation:
Eugenics is a now-discredited approach that seeks to improve the genetic quality of a human population by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior and promoting those judged to be superior. This concept was misused in the past to support harmful and unethical ideas about human worth and reproduction. Genetics, however, is the scientific study of heredity and the inherent characteristics, or inheritable traits, which are passed on from parents to offspring. Genetics examines how these traits are transmitted through genes, and this biological field has been considerably shaped by the research of Gregor Mendel, who is known as the father of genetics. Unlike eugenics, genetics relies on rigorous scientific methods to understand how traits are inherited. Mendel's experiments with pea plants laid the groundwork for our understanding of genetic inheritance. He discovered that certain traits could be dominant or recessive, and these traits would be passed on to successive generations in predictable patterns. Mendel's work, once it was rediscovered and understood, refuted the idea of the blending theory of inheritable traits, which incorrectly suggested that traits from parents were blended in offspring, leading to intermediate characteristics.