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Born | July 22, 1822, Heinzendorf, in the Silesia region of Austria, now part of the Czech Republic |
Position | Monk and then abbott from 1868 Institute/Company Brünn Monastery, Austria |
| Biography | Johann Mendel grew up the son of a peasant farmer in Austria. The discoveries he made could have been no more distant from the rumblings of the steam-driven Industrial Revolution taking place in the great cities of Europe than if he had been born in Papua, New Guinea. At age 21, he entered a monastery and settled into the life of a monk - praying, teaching, and tending the monastery's small botanical garden. It was his digging in the garden there that was to lead to a discovery that would revolutionize our understanding of life itself and ultimately bring us, almost a century and a half later, to a new industry - biotechnology. |
| Died | January 6, 1884, Brünn, Austria, now Brno, Czech Republic |
What was the key event that pushed you into research?
One question about life weighed particularly heavily on my mind at the time I was working in the kitchen garden at the monastery in Brünn. I had all these edible pea plants with differently colored flowers and it got me to thinking about how such a characteristic is passed down from one generation to the next. I figured the only way to find out would be to experiment with the peas, so I started on that work in 1856 or thereabouts.
Who was your most influential teacher?
It would have to be my abbott. He led me spiritually and gave me the kick-start I needed to get into science.
Why did you leave the monastery to study at Vienna University?
Well, that was the kick, I guess. The monastery and school libraries had plenty of scientific books, especially ones discussing agricultural, horticultural, and botanical matters. But once I had devoured those, I felt that I needed more. Once I had been ordained as a priest, in 1847, Vienna U. seemed to be the natural place to go to study natural sciences. I guess, also, that having failed my teaching exams, my abbott felt that I needed some time out to learn and gather my thoughts about what I wanted to do with my life.
So, was it difficult for a country boy to return to the monastery after seeing the wider world in Vienna?
Not really. There were not the opportunities for worldwide travel that seem to be available to everyone in your century, although I believe that might change if there are real pressures applied to reduce fuel usage and slow global warming. I don't think my pea plants would have such a good life if things get too hot out in the field.
Why did you change your Christian name from Johann to Gregor?
I think Brother Gregor has a more ecclesiastical ring to it, don't you?
Which research paper had the most effect on your work?
There were plenty of books in the library at the monastery, but I cannot single out a piece of literature that would qualify for the status of most influential.
Some latter-day critics have suggested that you set out to disprove Darwin's idea of descent with modification and tried to demonstrate that hybrids gave invariant progeny.
I have heard these accusations before, in particular with regard to my work with Hieracium in showing constant (nonsegregating) hybrids. A lot of people think I must have read Mr. Darwin's On the Origin of Species, but I had already begun formulating the rules of heredity long before he published his first book. You might like to know that despite the fact that he had learned of my work with the peas by the time he wrote Origin, I didn't even get a footnote. Not that I am bitter, of course, anything but. I am a man of God, after all.
Who awarded you your first grant and what was it for?
I suppose I don't fit into the conventional pigeonhole of a grant-pursuing scientist. Everything I needed for sustenance was provided by God, as it were, through my work in the monastery. I doubt I would get funding these days to study the pretty colors of peas and the wrinkles of their pods. The whole of biology seems to generally ignore characteristics in favor of the underlying chemistry - molecular biology, I think it has been dubbed. It is an interesting change in perspective, considering biology's roots.
What was your best experiment?
It would have to be the peas one! Although, when I say one, there were probably thousands of individual breeding experiments, some 28,000 plants, and countless hours, years even, of cataloguing all those pods and flowers - happy memories!
Your results didn't go down too well with the Brünn Society for the Study of Natural Science when you presented them in early 1865. Why do you think they got such a cold reception?
My "plant hybridization" ideas were simply too far ahead of their time, I suspect. I was full of confidence and suggested that this was a turning point in understanding biology. I had come up with a mathematical approach, one might say, to the problem of heredity. I cannot be sure whether my solution was just too complex or whether I rushed through the explanation, but the newspapers described my audience as "polite, but blankly uncomprehending." Not the best press I could have hoped for with what has turned out to be one of the most significant scientific discoveries ever, even if I do say so myself.
Which scientific idea do you regret the most?
It is not so much a scientific idea as the fact that, despite studying intensely for many years at the monastery, Vienna U. and elsewhere in physics, chemistry, mathematics, zoology, botany, and the lot, I never did pass the examination to get my teacher's license.
What qualities do you need to be a successful researcher?
Tenacity is a good one. Ferocity, by which I mean having a ferociously curious mind, is helpful. The combination of the two gives one the ability to pursue "the" serious questions to which no one else has provided an answer. All part of God's purpose, I suppose.
If you could work with any scientist (historical or current), who would it be?
I'd have maybe liked to have worked with Darwin, to be frank. It would have been great to have taken that trip to the Galapagos Islands. The wildlife in Austria is rather limited - goats and such - and although we have some nice alpine plants, these are, I suspect, but nothing compared to the fantastic diversity of life in the wider world. It's a shame, in your century, that this diversity seems not to be quite so rich and is being squandered for short-term material gain.
What is your greatest unanswered scientific question?
That is a difficult one to answer, after all, as a monk one should not really be probing the workings of the mind of God. Although I believe Michael Faraday carried out science for the greater glory of the Almighty, so who am I to argue? I would have to ask, rather less than humbly, that knowing what is now known about heredity and the work of Darwin's successors, where does the vital spark, which we figured was God-given, now fit into the pattern of life on earth?
If we and all living things are merely complex chemical entities sharing common ground in just four base units, any one of which can readily be assembled in a test-tube, then why do we need to invoke the existence of a supernatural being to explain straightforward chemistry. I guess that is why I had such a downer on Darwin - darn - I've admitted it now!
Presumably, though, your faith comes into the question somewhere?
I guess so.
What scientific plans do you have for the next 5 years?
Not a lot. I've been dead for over a century, and if you think funding is bad on earth, wait until you get up here. My book's still available, though - Experiments in Plant Hybridization by Gregor Mendel, with Harvard University Press. You should be able to find it on Amazon.
David Bradley, a freelance science writer, lives on the edge of the fens north of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Elemental Discoveries is his Webzine of science news.
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