The basic rules of inheritance in eukaryotes was first discovered by Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), a monk who bred pea plants. Though breeding pea plants doesn't seem like the most exciting way of learning about heredity, the results were very helpful to the development of the science of genetics. Mendel was the first to effectively apply quantitative methods to the study of inheritance. He didn't merely describe his obsercations. Instead, he planned his experiments carefully, recorded the data, and subjected the results to mathematical analysis. His work went unappreciated in his lifetime but was rediscovered in 1900. His major findings, including those now known as Mendel's principles of segregation and independent assortment became the foundation of genetics.
