In 1859, Charles Darwin wrote in __On the Origin of Species__ that "the laws governing inheritance are quite unknown." Unknown to him maybe, but three years earlier, an obscure Augustinian friar was toiling away in his garden to discover those laws -- laws that would eventually bear his name.
By now, the legend of Mendel's pea-crossing experiments is infamous in the annals of science, but the man behind the peas remains little appreciated, if not misunderstood. Enter the Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics exhibition, developed by The Field Museum in Chicago, and now on its fifth and final US stop at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia before the artifacts return home to the Mendel Museum in Brno, Czech Republic. Mendel may have dressed as a friar, but he had the heart and mind of a scientist. With a touch of affectation, the exhibition presents a comprehensive...
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