150 years ago
Mendel’s first lessons in Brno
The city of Brno is celebrating the sesquicentennial anniversary of the first lesson held by Johann Gregor Mendel: a Czech naturalist, mathematician and monk, considered the precursor of modern genetics, thanks to his revolutionary observations on hereditary characteristics, that laid the foundations of this science. Mendel held lessons in the former German school in Jánská street, in Brno, in the winter of 1865. There, he had the opportunity to expose his lifetime work to an audience of various scientists, during two conferences held on 8 February and 8 March of the same year. The following year he published his scientific work and sent several copies to the most famous European scientists of that period, inviting them to verify his discoveries by means of new experimentation. In view of this special event, the Mendel Museum in Brno has organized exhibitions of manuscripts and a series of conferences dedicated to the scientist, who is considered the father of modern science.