The Father of Genetics!

I am the father of genetics! Who could this amazing person be? Gregor Mendel was a priest, also known as a monk. He lived in Eastern Europe, and was proudly known as the father of genetics. Mendel was born on July 22nd, 1822, and was born into a poor peasant family. Mendel didn’t live just anywhere in Europe; he lived in a monastery. When he lived there, Mendel left to attend the University of Vienna. Unfortunately and fortunately, he failed his tests, which meant he didn’t receive a teaching degree. Mendel only went to the University to study mathematics and science, but sadly couldn’t succeed. When he went back to the monastery after Vienna, he tended a garden. This wasn’t just any old garden used for growing. Mendel just didn’t wait for his food to grow so he could eat it-he studied pea plants! He observed large amounts of pea plants by examining the heredity, variations, and evolutions. With previous knowledge from other scientists, Mendel knew he could study the traits of the different pea generations. Recessive, the lowercase letters in the genetic code, and dominant, the uppercase, are parts of genetics. Mendel, being very smart, was able to start this new code by using letters. In addition to finding the code, Mendel used his intelligibility to write down his notes! He wrote down information, good notes, and his experiment, which made him very well known. Many foregoing scientists studied or tried to study genetics, but they didn’t write it down. Because of this, these scientists were not recognized for their actions. In the beginning I mentioned that it was unfortunate and fortunate that he failed his test. But how could it be both? After Mendel failed, he went back to the monastery, and he started genetics. If he didn’t do this, then we might not know the information about genetics that we do today. In the 1900’s Mendels work was shared with all of us in the world. Unfortunately he died in 1884, and was not there to see his work be shown to the public. I’m very happy that Mendel observed the pea plants, because if it weren’t for him I wouldn’t know as much about genetics using the example of pea plants. "My father" did a great job!

TOPIC: Gregor Mendel
Link: http://library.thinkquest.org/20465/mendl.html