 Gregor Mendel, the Austrian monk now commonly referred to as the “father of genetics”, never uttered the terms “gene” or “genetics” because those terms weren’t introduced until decades after his death. In 1865, he reported on the results of breeding experiments he performed hybridizing pea plants during which he tracked how a series of traits (e.g., round vs. wrinkled peas, white vs. purple flowers) passed down through generations. Mendel noted certain patterns of inheritance; for example, traits seemed to be transmitted independently of one another (Mendel 1866). Mendel died in 1884, at which point there was little indication that he would end up in biology textbooks (Olby 1985). 