Mendelian Genetics

Gregor Mendel's 1866 pea plant experiments uncovered the laws of inheritance—dominance, segregation, and independent assortment—decades before the scientific community recognized their significance. This discovery established genetics as a quantitative science, with a 3:1 phenotypic ratio in monohybrid crosses remaining a textbook standard. It outperforms the Discovery of Antibodies in breadth, not only explaining immunity as an inherited defense but also driving agricultural innovations that boosted crop yields by 15% in the 20th century.