Gregor Mendel Accomplishments

The life and accomplishments of Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel, considered the “father of genetics”, lived a unique and interesting life. Gregor, originally named Johann Mendel, was born into an austrian family during the year of 1822. During adulthood, he became a friar and changed his name to Gregor. During that time, he worked on plants to learn genetics. He stopped his work on plants as soon as he became abbot of his monastery. He was forgotten for nearly three decades before being rediscovered. Before he is forgotten once again, let me explain his life and his discoveries. First, let’s start with his pretty interesting childhood. He was born as Johann Mendel at July 20, 1822 into a german-descended-austrian family. His German-descended-austrian family owned a farm for at least 130 years. He studied beekeeping and worked as a gardener before heading to gymnasium (the european version of a
preparatory high school.) At the year 1840, Johann Mendel finished gymnasium and started to attend university. His life starting from university has changed our perception on children for the rest of our lives.
When Mendel was at university, he struggled to pay for his education, so his sister gave him her dowry (which was supposed to be for her husband I believe.) Don’t worry, it wasn’t wasted because Mendel repaid his sister by supporting her children. Later, he became a friar, as it would allow him to have an education without having to pay for it. When he became a friar, Johann Mendel renamed himself to Gregor Mendel. As Gregor Mendel, he worked as a substitute teacher. He tried becoming a certified teacher, but he failed the oral part of the test every time he took the test to be a certified teacher. If he did pass the test however, we wouldn’t have known him for being the “father of genetics.” You see, Gregor Mendel experimented on pea plants, learning how heredity works. Without him, I wouldn’t be writing this paper. When he started working on his experiments with heredity, he began experimenting on mice. However, his bishop wasn’t too comfortable with one of his friars watching animals mate. So, Mendel experimented on pea plants and learned about alleles (I would explain, but I’m afraid that I might get some facts wrong, and it would take a while anyway). He experimented with 28,000 pea plants between 1856 and 1863. However, he stopped experimenting on plants as soon as he became abbot.
When did he become abbot?
Well, it was around 1867 that he was elevated to the rank (I think rank is a good word to describe this) of abbot. Because abbots are busy, (I guess?) Mendel could not spend time to work on his pea plants. On January 6th, 1884, Gregor Mendel, near the age of 61 and a half (only 14 days left), died a painful death. (he was pretty sick) For some reason, his succeeding abbot burned down Mendel’s papers. His work was rediscovered, (somehow,) and now, he is considered the father of genetics. And that’s how most people remember him: the father of genetics.
Now, let us recap the life and accomplishments of Gregor Mendel. Johann Mendel was born into a german-descended-austrian family that owned a 130 year old farm. Upon entering religious life as a friar, he changed his name to Gregor. As a friar, he studied pea plants and learned about heredity. Soon, he became an abbot, retired from science, and died with his scientific works undiscovered. Well, undiscovered, but only for 3 decades. That was the life of Gregor Mendel/Johann Mendel/the father of
genetics. Bibliography
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Olby, Robert. "Gregor Mendel." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 13 Apr. 2016. Web. 11 Feb. 2017. .