Biography of Gregor Mendel’s Life

Biography of Gregor Mendel’s Life

  • Submitted By: elikini81
  • Date Submitted: 12/07/2008 5:34 AM
  • Category: Science
  • Words: 1943
  • Page: 8
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Biography of Gregor Mendel’s Life

Gregor Mendel was born into a German speaking family of Heinzendorf, Moravia, in the Austrian Empire on July 22, 1822. His family was a farming family. During his childhood he worked as a gardener. He didn’t have a natural aptitude for farming and wasn’t looking forward to his future in that area of work. His luck changed when one of his teachers realized how bright he was. As a young man he attended the Philosophical Institute in Olomouc. Mendel couldn’t afford it after a short while so he had to leave the University.

In 1843, Mendel then joined the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno to escape his financial worries and also have an environment that encouraged experimentation and learning. It is very likely that Mendel never felt a religious calling but saw the order as a free way to further his studies. He stayed with the Augustinian Abbey for the rest of his life. It was while in the Abbey that he changed his name from Johann Mendel, to Gregor Mendel upon entering monastic life. In 1847 he was ordained as a priest. Then in 1851 he was sent to the University of Vienna to study, and he returned to the abbey 1853.

Once he was back in 1853, he fulfilled various duties like visiting the sick and teaching physics. Since he never passed the required exams for a teaching certificate, he was used as a substitute.

Before Mendel started working with pea plants he bred mice. He had to withdraw from mouse breeding because the local bishop found it extremely offensive. The bishop forced Mendel to find a more suitable area of study, and that’s when Mendel started to grow pea plants. Mendel found the pea plants very practical because they were cheap, took up little space and produced offspring quickly. For many years, Mendel tended to his pea plants, counting and classifying their offspring. Between 1856 and 1863 Mendel cultivated and tested on about 28,000 pea plants.

During the time Mendel was working with his...

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