[00:04.55]His name is introduced to biology students, but often forgotten after the final exam.
[00:10.76]His pioneering discoveries went unnoticed by the world until years after his death.
[00:15.88]But now, in the era of genetic engineering and cloning debates,
[00:20.45]scientists are elevating Johann Gregor Mendel to his rightful place in history alongside better-known,
[00:28.40]19th century contemporaries such as Charles Darwin.
[00:32.21]Experts and scientists have collected artwork and artifacts inside the partially restored Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno,
[00:41.14]a Czech city where Mendel lived, experimented with pea plants and published his historic findings in 1866,
[00:49.52]becoming the “father of genetics”.
[00:52.57]The abbey, which dates from the 14th century, was seized from the Augustinian monks by communists in 1950
[01:00.85]and returned to the religious order after the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
[01:06.30]A restoration project began in 1996. Yet much of the stone complex remains unused.
[01:14.24]Mendel was born to a farming family in what’s today the eastern Czech Republic.
[01:20.01]He became a priest in 1847 and later studied science at the University of Vienna.
[01:26.00]Fascinated, by plant hybridization, he began experimenting in the abbey garden with pea plants.
[01:32.54]During the 1850s Mendel carefully and systematically crossbred the plants
[01:38.96]until reaching conclusions that form the basis for the laws of heredity.
[01:43.64]He presented his landmark paper in 1865 and had it published the next year. But no one noticed.
[01:51.70]According to scholars, Mendel’s contemporaries failed to grasp the significance of his discoveries.
[01:58.56]But around 1900 — long after his death in 1884 — a British zoologist re-introduced the Czech scientist and his work,
[02:07.93]sparking an era of medical, agricultural and scientific progress that continues today.
[02:14.03]Indeed, thanks to Mendel and his peas, modern man understands why children inherit their parents’ traits,
[02:20.92]what roles are played by chromosomes and DNA in living things and how genetics can be used to improve human health.
[02:28.80]Around 1996, his findings led to the famous cloning of Dolly the sheep,
[02:34.82]as well as ethical debates over human cloning and farming with genetically modified crops.
