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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.