by Simon Mawer

Today, it is accepted scientific fact that genes govern heredity in all living things and that DNA is the vehicle for the transmission of genes between generations. All of this began, however, with the ground-breaking work of one man and his obsession with Pisum sativum - the garden pea. Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics tells the story of the Augustinian friar and his experiments in the infant field of genetics, resulting in discoveries so far ahead of their time that they were overlooked for half a century. Novelist Simon Mawer gives a fluid recitation of the circumstances under which Mendel pollinated his peas and laid the groundwork for modern inquiries into heredity and its mechanisms. The political and scientific upheavals of the mid-nineteenth century - from student uprisings all over Europe to Darwin's astounding ideas - serve as a backdrop for Mendel's own revolution. Mawer also explores the progress of the science of genetics from its birth during the Enlightenment, through the advent of its darker twin, eugenics, and into its current incarnation as medicine's new "magic bullet" in the fight against disease.