The Father of Genetics and the greatest Biologist of the 19th century.
Charles
Robert Darwin
was a great nineteenth century naturalist; nowadays we would call
him a
biologist. Some people do
not like his theory of
evolution
by natural
selection, but even
leaving this out his work in biology certainly qualifies him for the
adjective "Great".
Gregor Johann Mendel
was an obscure Austrian monk who later got promoted to an obscure
Austrian abbot. Mendel was also a biologist and for his
work in a
little monastery garden on peas from 1856 to 1863 is now known as
the Father
of Genetics.
Darwin never heard of Mendel.
Mendel
had heard of Darwin and his theory of
Evolution
by Natural
Selection. Mendel was a churchman, a consecrated
Augustinian Priest. He was also
a
great scientist. He
considered Darwin's theory and was a supporter of
it. He certainly did not
accept everything Darwin wrote. Darwin had a
theory of inheritance, the theory of Pangenesis.
This theory was largely accepted during the lifetimes of Darwin and Mendel, but after the rediscovery of
Mendel's work in 1900, it was
realized that Mendel's experiments provided a much better
description
of inheritance. Mendel also was able to demonstrate that
Darwin's
belief that a single pollen grain could never pollinate a flower
was
incorrect.
The irony of this
situation is that one of the sources of Darwin's
Doubts was that it is more difficult to see how Evolution would work using
Darwin's own theory of Pangenesis
than with Mendel's genetic theory.
If Darwin had known of Mendel's
work, many of the problems he could see with Evolution by Natural
Selection would have disappeared. In fact, as Mendel apparently
realized, the work of the two great biologists complemented each
other.
A
minor mystery is why Mendel
apparently never contacted Darwin himself.
Unfortunately, when Mendel died in 1884 the next Abbot burned
all his
papers to end disputes over taxation, so we do not know if Mendel
ever
considered writing to Darwin.
Notes
Mendel was born Johann Mendel, and adopted the name Gregor when
he became a monk.
Mendel was born at Heinzendorf
bei Odrau then in Austria, but now in the Czech Republic.
Obscure
is the adjective normally used for Mendel.
Since he was promoted to
Abbot, he must have been recognized by the Church Hierarchy. He was
obscure as a scientist and his paper, "Experiments on Plant Hybridization", was criticized, but mostly ignored.
It was only about 16 years after
Mendel's death that its extreme importance was recognized.
Darwin
never heard of Mendel. This statement is sometimes
disputed, but the bulk of the evidence points to this conclusion.
Steve Challis
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