Gregor Mendel

Today is the anniversary of the death of the Austrian botanist and monk Gregor Mendel.

Mendel pioneered the study of heredity when he gave peas a chance. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!) 
In all seriousness, Mendel discovered the basic principles of heredity through experiments with peas in his garden at the Augustinian monastery he lived in at Brno (pronounced "burr-no") in the Czech Republic.
During seven years in the mid-1800s, Mendel grew nearly 30,000 pea plants - taking note of their height and shape, and color. This work resulted in what we now know as the Laws of Heredity. And Mendel came up with the genetic terms and terminology that we still use today, like dominant and recessive genes.