mendel

[kabuto]

how does Mendel know to choose pea to do his experiment?

i mean, he wouldnt have guessed the dominant/recessive things beforehand right?

why not on potato, animal, etc?

[nugget]

mendel was actually pretty lucky in the pea plant he chose ! the characteristics of the specific species he chose showed distinct traits, for example the height of the plants were either tall and short instead of showing continuous variation.

I think he just chose a plant according to how fast they grew and the fact that he was able to manuallu crosspollinate them. Being in a Garden a lot and finding interest in them are why he probably knew he could do that. Pea plants also dont take up so much space, i mean lol a potato plant takes up a bit more space than a pea plant lol

He wouldnt have guessed the dominant and recessive traits thats why he had pure breeds to start with. I personally dont think he really knew what he was looking for, jsut wanted to play around with some plants mix them around, cross pollinate to see what happens. Its just that he was so consistent with keeping record, being very cautious of other variables and such, and by luck he chose a plant with distinct traits!! so he was able to observe what he did !!


hooray for mendel

[kiekyon]

first, his bishop and the Pope had refused to allow him to use animals.

And peas have a nice short growing season. And he also wanted a system that had a small number of variables. Peas plants can be big or small, the seeds can be green or yellow, smooth or wrinkly. Lots of characteristics that have only two choices. Whereas animals have lots of choices for their characteristics. Like dogs for instance, there are big, medium, small, brown, yellow, red, spotted, striped and so on.
And peas, were a better choice than other plants becuase they have
offspring that are nice BIG seeds, and so he could check their chactersitics easily.

P/s From a small number of notes we know that he probably cheated! His results were too perfect to have happened by chance.

[nugget]

lol
pffft who cares if he cheated!!!

cant we just be glad it all came out somehow??

hooray for mendel who had the balls to cheat

[kiekyon]

lol
pffft who cares if he cheated!!!

cant we just be glad it all came out somehow??

hooray for mendel who had the balls to cheat

if he's alive, he would be vilified like the korean stem cell guy

but since he's not,

hooray for mendel who had the balls to cheat

[Ultrashogun]

Peas are a good choice because the flowers close up and prevent pollination from other plants, making autopollination easy.

[tranjo]

Actually, Mendel's cheating brings up an interesting issue in science.

If you "know" the answer, do you fabricate the results (to be the first to publish) and have those replicating your "experiments" do the work for you?

Best, J

[MrMistery]

I have never heard this about mendel, an neither has the genetics professor i discussed with. Anyway, it doesn't really matter if you ask me.
@tranjo
How would you know the results? You had a dream the night before?

[chemistry_freako]

Oh well - the dead men can't tell us no answers,
so let's not assume =p

[rye]

hahahhahaahah...... i guess it because pea plant are asy to grow and also it time for growth is also fast and short

[oana_t]

rye its right....thats why mendel chose peas

[victor]

Or can be said that it was Mendel's hobby to plant Pea...