Gregor Mendel

Gregor Mendel was a monk who, through the use of plant-life, discovered the principles of heredity. Mendel used pea stalks in his observations and recorded certain characteristics, such as height and color. Through careful observation of a large amount of these plants, he was able to determine that the plants appeared to pass on their characteristics to their offspring. For example, tall peas crossbred with other tall peas produced new plants of similar height. He was also able to determine that characteristics like color had "dominant" and "recessive" traits. Plants, and indeed, most life in general, carry two sets of chromosomes, and in some cases only one of these traits is displayed. In the case of the color of the pea-stalks, a plant may carry both a "green" and a "yellow" color gene, from either of its parents, but since "green" is dominant, the plant would only...