Week 3 Day 5 History of Biology Case Study

As a biology teacher I was probably as familiar coming into this course with Gregor Mendel and his experiments on plant hybrids as any other figure from the history of biology, excepting maybe Darwin, Watson, and Crick. Once again, I find there was quite a bit more I needed to know, and several points that I have been guilty of misrepresenting to my students over the years. I accept part of the blame for this, but I also must say that to a certain extent I was victimized by my own education, from grade school on, and in particular by the over-reliance on textbooks and perpetuation of many of the cliches, pseudohistory, and pseudoscience rampant in American education. At the same time, I am personally trying to do something about this by continuing my education, broadening my perspective, focusing on being a better science teacher, and hopefully passing on some of what I learn to other teachers as well as my students.

I have always been fascinated by Mendel, and after reading the Masterworks of Discovery edition on his experiments and life he is more relatable than ever to me. Mendel was a science teacher from an agricultural family who enjoyed chess and meteorology. He had difficulty dealing with the sick and injured (his own health was troublesome for him as well), and was apparently a gifted administrator and religious figure, who nevertheless rarely mixed his science and theology. In these readings I came across Schleiden and Schwann for the first time in this course, and it got me thinking that I would have liked to have included more on the historical aspects of the development of cell theory. Of course, this is an opportunity for further reading and study on my own. Mendel interacted with many famous scientists throughout his life, and even studied under the famous Doppler.

Secord and Monaghan do a wonderful job of explaining the Chi-square statistical method, and in doing so make a strong case that Mendel and/or his assistants never actually "fudged" his data as his been suggested by some. They also address the issue that Mendel was actually concerned with hybridization of plants, and never fundamentally stated the laws of heredity and certainly never approached the idea of a gene. The authors make Mendel's experiments easily understandable, and seem to be in agreement with Allchin's points from earlier in the course, for the most part, as Mendel never really had a clear hypothesis.

Brannigan, meanwhile, makes a strong case that in my opinion lays to rest the idea that Mendel's work was forgotten until the early 1900s, as he gives many documented examples of how various workers were using and referencing Mendel up to then and after as well. Unfortunately, some were even apparently using his ideas and results without actually giving Mendel credit. He discusses scientists such as Naudin who were doing similar work before or at the same time as Mendel, other hybridists who did much the same as Mendel but without the ratios, and he discusses Darwin's idea of pangenesis and the part Mendel's work played in the ongoing evolution controversy. It is also impressive to me that Mendel was one of the first to begin to apply mathematics to biology, but then he had taught physics and apparently was well-schooled at the University of Vienna. Bateson and the biometricians provided an interesting component of this reading as well. Brannigan concludes that Mendel was not as obscure as many think, and his paper was misread by some and taken correctly by others concerning evoution, natural selection, variation, and heredity. I have a hard time with any idea that Mendel's work conflicted with religion, as Mendel himself, a monk and priest, scrupulously kept those domains separate, as I feel they should be.

Bibliographic Note:

Augustine Brannigan, The Social Basis of Scientific Discoveries, (Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press, 1981). I was concerned with chapter 6 on Mendel.

Alain F. Corcos and Floyd V. Monaghan, Gregor Mendel's Experiments on Plant Hybrids: A Guided Study, (New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1993). A comprehensive look at Mendel and his work.

Further Reading Note:

Upon my next visit to the Collections I would like view some of Mendel's available original work.