Skip to main content

Google doodles father of genetics Gregor Mendel's 189th birthday


New Delhi: An assortment of peas welcomed users to the Google home page on July 20, 2011. The peas arranged in the shape of the Google logo is Google's tribute to Austrian botanist and monk George Mendel on his 189th birth anniversary.
Born on July 20, 1822 in Heinzendorf, Austria (now in the Czech Pepublic) as Johann Mendel he was given the name Gregor when he joined a monastery as a novitiate of the Augustinian order.
He studied physics and mathematics at Vienna and more importantly studied the anatomy and physiology of plants under botanist Franz Unger.
Mendel began his experiments with plant hybridization at a monastery in Brunn. His choice for his experiments was the pea plant (the reason behind the peas in the Google doodle). His experiments led him to formulate the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment, which later became known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance.
After his experiment with peas, he turned to honeybees. Mendel did not make much efforts to publicise his works and his contemporaries remained sceptical about his research. He was also consumed with administrative responsibilities of his monastic order to be able to devote much time to his scientific pursuits.
Mendel died at the age of 61 on January 6, 1884. It was only after his death, in the early 20th century, that the importance of his works was realised.
For being the architect of genetic experimental and statistical analysis, Mendel is acknowledged as the father of genetics.
Google occasionally swaps its logo for an artistic doodle These Google doodles have gained immense popularity over the past few years and the Google doodle team has put out commemorative doodles on numerous events of international or national importance, ranging from news events, civic milestones, birthdays, death anniversaries and important dates in history.
Apart from the static image doodles Google also puts up animated and interactive doodles. The last interactive doodle was to celebrate the 96th birthday of the country and jazz guitarist, songwriter and inventor, Les Paul.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

George Boole’s 200th Birthday

  Here’s an easy, yes-or-no question: Is the universe complex? YES, of course, you could say; it would be crazy to think otherwise! But on the other hand, British mathematician   George Boole   taught us that NO, things can be seen as relatively simple; any values can be pared down to yes or no, true or false, or 0 or 1 (which, here at Google, is our personal favorite). In 1849, Boole was appointed as the first Professor of Mathematics at   University College Cork , where he pioneered developments in logic and mathematics. His beautiful binary “Boolean” system was detailed in   An Investigation of the Laws of Thought   in 1854, which inevitably enabled revolutionary thinking in not just logic and math, but also engineering and computer science. As one of the most important scientists to have ever worked in Ireland, Boole effectively laid the foundations of the entire Information Age while working from UCC. So it’s fair to say that without Geo...
Post a Comment
Read more

In pics: The Bachchan Family Tree

The Bachchans:  Bachchans are busy celebrating the arrival of Aishwarya and Abhishek's daughter. Let's meet the Bachchan clan Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan's father was a famous Hindi poet. He is most popular for his book 'Madhushala'. He passed away in 2003. Harivansh Rai Bachchan got married to Shyama in 1926. Shyama died after ten years of marriage. Harivansh married Teji Bachchan (in the picture) in 1941. They had two sons, Amitabh and Ajitab. Born in 1969, Amitabh Bachchan is the most popular Bollywood celebrity today. Ajitabh Bachchan (second from left) is Amitabh's younger brother Amitabh Bachchan is married to actress Jaya Bachchan. They have two children, Abhishek Bachchan and Shweta Nanda. Jaya was born in a Hindu Bengali family to Taroon Kumar Bhaduri and Indira Bhaduri. Her father was a writer, journalist and stage artist. Abhishek's elder sister Shweta Bachchan Nanda is married to industrialist Nikhil Nanda. Nikhil and Shweta have t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Google doodle celebrates André-Jacques Garnerin and the 216th anniversary of the first parachute jump

Google has created a ‘doodle’ to celebrate the 216th anniversary of the world’s first parachute jump. The doodle is based on Andre-Jacque Garnerin’s daring leap on October 22 1797 at Parc Monceau in Paris, which saw the then 28-year-old leap from a balloon using a seven-metre silk parachute that resembled an umbrella. Once Garnerin’s balloon reached a height of approximately 3,000 feet, the Parisian daredevil severed the rope that attached it to his basket, automatically opening the parachute. This left Garnerin plummeting towards the earth still inside the container, with just the attached silk parachute in place to decrease the speed of its fall. Although the basket lurched violently during the descent and suffered a violent landing, Garnerin somehow emerged totally uninjured. Following the jump, Garnerin was granted the title Official Aeronaut of France and he went on to become a well-known international figure. He and his wife Jeanne Genevieve Labross...
Post a Comment
Read more