When we ask, "Can we measure genetic variation without thinking about heritability?", we need to understand what both terms mean.

Genetic variation is about how different genes are among people in a group. This variation can help explain why some people are taller or why some get sick more easily.

Heritability, on the other hand, tells us how much of the differences in a trait comes from genes instead of outside factors like the environment. You can think of heritability as a formula:

$h^2 = \frac{V_G}{V_P}$

In this formula:

• ( h^2 ) is heritability.
• ( V_G ) is genetic variance.
• ( V_P ) is phenotypic variance, which is just the total differences we can see.

So, what's the answer to our question?

Yes, we can measure genetic variation without looking at heritability. But these two ideas are related.

For example, let's say we see that a trait has a lot of genetic variation. You might think that it’s mostly because of genes. But if we don’t consider heritability, we might ignore how much the environment affects that trait, too.

Imagine this: Two people could be very different in height because of their genes. However, things like how well they eat and their overall health also matter. If we don’t think about these outside factors, we might think genes are the only reason for their height differences.

In short, we can measure genetic variation in a group. But without knowing about heritability, we might misunderstand how much of that variation really comes from genes and how much comes from the environment. Heritability helps us see the full picture!