Plant research has often been done with plants. In genetics, the breeding of pea plants allowed Gregor Mendel to derive the basic laws governing inheritance, and examination of chromosomes in maize allowed Barbara McClintock to demonstrate their connection to inherited traits. The plant "Arabidopsis thaliana" is used in laboratories as a model organism to understand how genes control the growth and development of plant structures. NASA predicts that space stations or space colonies will one day rely on plants for life support. Ancient trees are revered and many are famous. Tree rings themselves are an important method of dating in archeology,
Christian Carl André Christian Carl André Christian Carl André (1763-1831) was a leading 19th century European natural scientist, publisher, economist and educator. He was among the pioneers in the study of heredity whose vision paved the way for the research of Gregor Mendel, the founder of modern genetics. Christian Carl André was born on 20 March 1763 in the German town of Hildburghausen. He studied at the University of Jena, and worked as a teacher in Eisenach and at the Schnepfenthal Salzmann School in Gotha. Then from 1798 to 1820 he lived in Brno, then within the Habsburg empire, where he headed the