Gregor Mendel (1822–1884)

Gregor Mendel

• Versuche uber Pflanzenhybriden
• Complex arguments from experiments
• Organism traits are inherited as fixed and separate units

Sold his property for money to study and finally get into ecclesiarchy.

Noticed that if you cross white flowers with pink flowers the result would be pink, not in between. A minority got to be white.

Good teacher. Inspired (inspired by?) Darwin. Wasn't knowledgeable about statistics, but wanted to find a pattern in inheritancy.

Wasn't really listened to – Mendelism became a thing from 1900 on. Some botanists made similar experiments, then found the articles by Mendel, who had been more thorough.

His book's not quite as fun as Darwin's, but still a good walkthrough of logical thinking.

Second summary

• The individual organism in the centre of life is now dissolved - Goethe would have hated this!
• The road towards biochemical reductionism has started
• But one important step in this story remains, clearly belonging to physics… Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961)

What links here

• Evolution
• Timeline of people born