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Gregor Johann Mendel was born on July 20 in former Austrian Empire (Heinzendorf bei Odrau), 1822 and died on January 6, 1884 (Brünn). Mendel was a monk and a scientist and is known as the founder of the new science of genetics. Mendel discovered that certain characteristics in pea plants followed some specific patterns. However his work was not recognized until the 20th century, long after his death when modern science of genetics started to redesign the laws of this branch.

Although Mendel’s research was made with plants, the same principles apply to people and some animals. The process Mendel used was to mix different types of common pea plants and then he saw how some characteristics showed up in the results. Mendel easily found out seven characteristics that happened in one of two forms:

1. Flower color: purple or white
2. Flower position: axil or terminal
3. Stem length: long or short
4. Seed shape: round or wrinkled
5. Seed color: yellow or green
6. Pod shape: inflated or not
7. Pod color: yellow or green
His research changed the views of many scientists who believed that characteristics from generation to generation were mixed. Mendel used garden pea plants because they could easily be grown in large numbers and their reproduction can be manipulated.

From his experiments he got to three main conclusions:
1. The characteristics passed to another generation are determined by factors passed to descendants without being changed.
2. Each individual inherits one unit from each parent for each characteristic.
3. That a characteristic may not show up in an individual but can still be passed on to the next generation.

Finally Mendel’s observations can be resumed in two principles:
1. The principal of segregation
2. The principal of independent variety

The principal of segregation consists in: for any particular characteristic from one parent only one passes to the next generation. What determines which characteristic is passed has some level of chance. The principle of independent variety means that it is not possible for new combinations of genes that are not present in any of the parents.