Mendel, Gregor

Gregor Mendel was an Austrian scientist and monk who, in the 19th century, discovered how traits are passed from parents to offspring through experiments with pea plants. He identified that these traits follow specific inheritance patterns, which later became the foundation of genetics. Mendel introduced concepts like dominant and recessive genes, explaining how some traits appear more frequently depending on gene combinations. His work laid the groundwork for understanding heredity, influencing modern biology, medicine, and agriculture, and is considered the birth of the science of genetics.