When they said he was a friar in Bio, for some reason I thought he came from waaaaay earlier in history.
Also, I don’t know why, but I found this, and it’s amazing:
That is amazing! Im sad he never continued.
He tried to breed bees but failed, see one of my other comments. Also, he was a devout Christian priest and his findings were challenging his faith.
No I meant the minecraft sheep guy. Unless you did too haha
No but it would be funny if a Christian Minecraft player had questions about his faith after pushing to implement a flower and bee breeding mechanic.
Well, his research was very sound by modern standards, mostly adhering to the scientific method. It would be very untimely 200 or more years prior. His paper (even in its original form!) is understandable by any modern intelligent person who can read German cursive.
Fun fact: he wanted to study mice breeding but the church said no because it was lewd. If he had he probably wouldn’t have figured things out since mice genetics aren’t as simple as peas.
He also kept bees in the monastery garden and tried to do experiments on them but it wasn’t known back then that bees mate high in the air, so his attempts to breed them were futile. Other monks were often stung or annoyed by the nasty bees so he quit beekeeping.
Source: Mathematics of Life by Ian Stewart. I also visited his museum on Mendel Square, Brno.
Once Upon a Time… The Discoverers ep. 16 also mentioned that the monks were annoyed at eating peas too often but I forgot to ask at the museum if that’s true.
I’m wondering, how come studying mice breeding was considered lewd when humans had already been breeding a variety of livestock (and selecting traits at this) for thousands of years?
He was a monk, after all. Breeding mammals is not something that celibacy-bound people usually do.
