Biography of Gregor Mendel – A good overview found at the National Health Museum.
Mendel Museum of Masaryk University – Interesting links, including pictures of Mendel’s garden (restored from original).
The Nine Lives of Gregor Mendel – An interesting look at different perspectives of Mendel’s work.
Gregor Mendel and the Principles of Inheritance – A good overview of Mendel, with a nice summation of his legacy.
As an overview, Gregor Mendel is important to genetics in that he was the first person to propose a mathematical basis for inheritance. While his work went unnoticed for generations, it is an important turning point; instead of far fetched views of inheritance (of which even Darwin was guilty), Mendel used systematic investigation and deduction to come up with general principles of inheritance. This becomes critical as it provides researchers with information on what to look for, and general rules that will become clearer as scientists begin to uncover nuclear division (mitosis and meiosis). Mendel’s work is a companion to Darwin’s, and with both in hand, we gain the modern scientific understanding of evolution.
Darwin, Mendel and Evolution
Whenever people start talking about Evolution, the discussion inevitably turns to Charles Darwin. While Darwin gave biologists the core mechanism of evolution, Natural Selection, he did not provide a workable hypothesis as to how variation is transmitted from generation to generation (inheritance). To that we must look to Gregor Mendel.
During the early 20th century, there were two camps for evolutionary biologists: those who believed Darwin had the answer, and those that sided with the rediscovered work of Mendel. The first steps to the synthesis of the work of Darwin and Mendel occurred between 1918 – 1932 and the work done Ronald Fisher, John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, & Sewall Wright on population genetics. The synthesis acknowledges Mendel as providing the Laws of Inheritance and Darwin for providing the mechanism of Natural Selection. Both are required to understand modern evolutionary thought.
(as a note, work on mitosis also provides us with robust data regarding both inheritance and natural selection)
In addition to learning about Gregor Mendel, I would like you to refresh you knowledge of probability by reviewing these two sites.
Probability Tutorial From West Texas A&M.
Probability Tutorial at ThinkQuest sonspored by Oracle Education Foundation.
The probability tutorials serve as a refresher. I’m not asking you to be an expert in probability theory, just that you have a good concept and foundation of probability theory. It will help as we work through Mendel’s work.
Daily Challenge
For today, I want you to create a brief profile on Gregor Mendel. Talk about his life, his work and his legacy. What can you learn from Mendel? This question is not about his work in genetics, but more about his scientific technique. If Mendel were here today, what could you learn from him? What guidance would you seek? Also consider and reflect upon the idea that it took decades for his work to become known. Why was that? What affect did it have when people saw it? Consider the impact of his work on science and society? Do we use Mendel’s concepts in general society?