Robin Marantz Henig: A monk and two peas

The science of genetics began around 140 years ago in a peaceful monastery garden in Moravia, at the patient yet ambitious hands of an overweight, black-cassocked monk named Gregor Mendel. For seven years he painstakingly tended his pea plants, crossing and backcrossing their pollen and egg cells, recording and analysing his results in order to come to some understanding of heredity.

Crucially, he demonstrated that he understood the difference between a plant's appearance and its underlying makeup.

Despite presenting two papers on his findings in 1865, he was ignored and died a disappointed man in 1884, years before his papers were "discovered" in 1900. His reputation has grown throughout the 20th century, and this book is an extremely accessible biography of a man about whom there has been much speculation. Was he a genius? Did he understand what he was doing?

Henig answers these questions with great even-handedness, wisdom and vitality

Phoenix

$29.95