Born this day in 1822 was Gregor Mendel, priest and scientist. 10 things you might not know about him:
Gregor Mendel was a monk, a teacher and a botanist, famous for his work on genetic inheritance. He is sometimes referred to as the father of modern genetics.
His father was a poor farmer in Heinzendorf, Silesia, Austrian Empire (now part of the Czech Republic). He had two sisters, Veronika and Theresia. The farm had been in the family for more than 130 years. Mendel’s name was Johann until he joined the Order of Saint Augustine and took the name Gregor.
He was a bright child, and a local priest persuaded his parents to send him to school and later university, where he studied physics and maths. He didn’t have an easy time of it, though, as his family were so poor and couldn’t support him financially. He tutored other students to make ends meet, and his sister Theresia gave him her dowry to help out as well. He was able to pay her back later by supporting her three sons in their studies. Even so, his financial situation got him down to the extent that he suffered from severe depression and had to go home twice to recover.
Becoming a monk was as much a financial decision as a religious one. His father would have liked him to take over the farm, but Mendel saw a way out of constant hardship and freedom to continue studying. The monastic life, he said, spared him the "perpetual anxiety about a means of livelihood."
At first, he was given the task of visiting the sick, but he found that so distressing that it made him ill, so the abbot found him a teaching position instead. He was good at that, even though when the law required him to take a teaching exam, he failed it twice, possibly due to nerves – the second time he attempted it, it gave him a nervous breakdown.
The abbot at the time, Cyril Napp, allowed him to conduct experiments into hybridisation at the monastery. Mendel’s most famous work was with Peas, chosen because they had lots of varying characteristics and they were easy to grow. He also did some work with hawkweed, and found the patterns of inheritance were somewhat different and neither he nor his academic associates could figure out why. It was some years later that scientists worked out that hawkweed also reproduces asexually which would have skewed the results.
He also worked with Bees, although none of his observations survived. Most of the monks found the bees aggressive but Mendel loved them and called them "my dearest little animals". He also, according to his fellow monks, bred Mice. There is a myth that the abbot stopped those experiments and switched to plants because it was unseemly for a celibate monk to watch mice getting it on. This is probably untrue because the monastery kept merino Sheep and the monks would have had to oversee the breeding of those; and it was partly because of the sheep that Mendel was encouraged to study genetics, because it might help produce more and better wool.
Mendel’s work didn’t exactly take the world by storm initially. Only 40 scientists attended when he presented his paper, and they didn’t really get it. Charles Darwin didn’t even know Mendel’s work existed; some say that if he had, the science of genetics would have taken off much sooner. Mendel shrugged all this off and commented, "My time will come." Even so, he made no efforts to publicise his work, only ordering 40 reprints. The whereabouts of only eight of those are known.
In due course, Mendel was elected abbot of the monastery and this left him little time for scientific research. As well as the day to day administration, his time was taken up by an ongoing dispute with the tax authorities, opposing a tax which he felt was unconstitutional. His successor decided to draw a line under all that and burned most of Gregor’s papers, so it may well be that a lot of his research went up in smoke at the same time.
Mendel died of Kidney disease at the age of 61. 200 years later, his body was exhumed and his DNA sequenced, showing that he would have been predisposed to Heart problems.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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