Gregor Mendel never saw a gene, yet he concluded that “heritable factors” were responsible for the patterns of inheritance he observed in peas. Similarly, maps of Drosophila chromosomes, and the very idea that genes are carried on chromosomes, were conceived by observing the patterns of inheritance of linked genes, not by observing the genes directly. Is it legitimate for biologists to claim the existence of objects and processes they cannot actually see? How do scientists know whether an explanation is correct?