Genetics Genetics Genetics is a branch of biology concerned with the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms. Gregor Mendel, a scientist and Augustinian friar, discovered genetics in the late 19th-century. Mendel studied "trait inheritance", patterns in the way traits are handed down from parents to offspring. He observed that organisms (pea plants) inherit traits by way of discrete "units of inheritance". This term, still used today, is a somewhat ambiguous definition of what is referred to as a gene. Trait inheritance and molecular inheritance mechanisms of genes are still primary principles of genetics in the 21st century, but
Johann Gregor Thalnitscher Johann Gregor Thalnitscher Johann Gregor Thalnitscher von Thalberg (10 March 1655 – 3 October 1719; less often known by his Slovene name "Janez Gregor Dolničar") was a Carniolan lawyer, scholar of ancient inscriptions, chronicler, and historian. Thalnitscher was born in Ljubljana on 10 March 1655 to Johann Baptist Thalnitscher and Maria Anna née Schönleben. His father was a Ljubljana judge and mayor, and made it possible for his son to study and travel throughout Germany and Italy, where he developed an enthusiasm for Baroque art. He studied in Ingolstadt and Bologna, and became a doctor of law in Bologna in