The Monk in the Garden

The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics

Robin Marantz Henig

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781328868251
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Science & Technology Biographies
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This acclaimed biography of 19thcentury scientist Gregor Mendel is " a fascinating tale of the strange twists and ironies of scientific progress" ( Publishers Weekly ). A National Book Critics Circle Award finalist In The Monk in the Garden, award-winning author Robin Marantz Henig vividly chronicles the birth of genetics, a field that continues to challenge the way we think about life itself. Tending to his pea plants in a monastery garden, the Moravian monk Gregor Mendel discovered the foundational principles of genetic inheritance. But Mendel's work was ignored during his lifetime, even though it answered the most pressing questions raised by Charles Darwin's revolutionary book, On the Origin of Species. Thirty-five years after his death, Mendel's work was saved from obscurity when three scientists from three different countries nearly simultaneously dusted off his groundbreaking paper and finally recognized its profound significance. From the perplexing silence that greeted his discovery to his ultimate canonization as the father of genetics, Henig presents a tale filled with intrigue, jealousy, and a healthy dose of bad timing. Though little is known about Mendel's life, she "has done a remarkable job of fleshing out the myth with what few facts there are" ( Washington Post Book World ).

Index

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

A:2Aa:a ratio, 91

AABB hybrid, 128

AaBb hybrid, 127–28, 129

aAbB hybrid, 129

aAbb hybrid, 129

aabb hybrid, 129

Aa hybrid, 86–87

acquired traits, inheritance of, 115–16

Agricultural Society, Brünn, 22–23

alleles, 230

allelomorph, 230, 238

Alt, Antonin, 135

Amsterdam Botanical Institute, 183

ancestral inheritance, law of, 114

animal experimentation, 203

Anlage, Correns’s use of term, 191

anthers, 71–72

apomixis, 159

Aristotle, 96

artificial selection, 109; natural selection and, 210–11

atavism, 204

Augustine, St., 30

Augustinians, 13, 23, 30

Auspitz, Josef, 121, 136

B

backcross, 83, 127–29; recessive, 128–29; double-recessive, 128–29, 191, 274

Balanoglossus, 206, 207

Balfour, Francis Maitland, 208

Barina, Franciscus Salesius, 250

barnacles, Charles Darwin and, 111

Bateson, Beatrice Durham, 199–200, 209–10, 278, 280; marriage of, 211–13; as husband’s assistant, 217–19; and “Dead Book,” 219

Bateson, Gregor, 214

Bateson, John, 213

Bateson, Martin, 213

Bateson, William, 1–4, 5, 7, 186–88, 194–98, 199–233, 236–40, 245–49, 259, 279–80; discovers Mendel’s article, 1–2, 195, 196; and rediscovery of Mendel, 1–4, 5, 7, 186–88, 194–98; travels to Brünn, 3–4; coins term “genetics,” 4, 226–27, 239, 250; and Hugo De Vries, 186, 187–88, 194–95, 197–98, 217, 228; and discontinuous variation, 186–87; critique of biometricians, 196, 200–204, 220, 229; Mendel’s Principles of Heredity: A Defence, 196; presidential address to British Association for Advancement of Science, 200–202, 219–20, 29; and W. F. R. Weldon, 203, 204, 205–11, 221–24, 225–26; Materials for the Study of Variation, 209; marriage of, 211–13; at Merton House, 213–14; and R. C. Punnett, 214–16; assistants of, 216–19; and Hurst’s research data, 221–24; advocacy of genetics as field, 227–30; at International Conferences on Hybridization and Plant Breeding, 228–29; and terminology for genetics, 229–30, 239; modification of Mendel’s terminology, 230; lectures in the United States, 231–32; and Thomas Hunt Morgan, 231–33, 237–38; and chromosome theory,...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Prologue: Spring 1900
• Act One
• In the Glasshouse
• Southern Exposure
• Between Science and God
• Breakdown in Vienna
• Back to the Garden
• Crossings
• First Harvest
• Eves Homunculus
• The Flowering of Darwinism
• Garden Reflections
• Full Moon in February
• Interlude
• The Silence
• “My Time Will Come”
• Act Two
• Synchronicity
• Mendel Redux
• The Monk’s Bulldog
• A Death in Oxford
• Inventing Mendelism
• A Statue in Mendelplatz
• Epilogue: Another Spring
• Acknowledgments
• Notes and Selected Readings
• Index
• About the Author
• Connect with HMH