On this day, 141 years ago, January 6, 1884 (December 9, 1883 in the lunar calendar), Mendel, the founder of modern genetics, died. Mendel was an Austrian biologist known for his discovery of the basic laws of inheritance. He was once a priest, but his scientific research results still received widespread attention from scientific research institutions. Mendel was born in 1822 in the city of Herzdorf, then located in the Austrian Empire. At the age of 21, he entered the monastery in Brno and became a priest in 1847. In 1850, he took the teacher's qualification exam, but failed because he had too little knowledge of biology and geology at the time. Still, the head of the monastery sent him to the University of Vienna to study mathematics and natural sciences. Although he did not qualify as a teacher, he was able to teach at the Technical School of Brno as a substitute teacher of natural sciences from 1854 to 1868. While teaching, plant cultivation experiments began in 1856. In 1865, Mendel summarized the famous laws of inheritance and read out his paper "Plant Crossing Experiments" at the Society of Natural Sciences in Brno, but it did not attract the attention of the scientific community. The following year, he published the experimental results he obtained in the journal of the society. Mendel also sent a paper to geneticist Nikili. Although Nikieli read Mendel's paper, he could not understand it, so he could not estimate the importance of Mendel's discovery, which made Mendel's paper unknown to the scientific community for the next 30 years. In 1868, Mendel was appointed president of the monastery. Busy with the affairs of the monastery, he no longer had time to care about his scientific experiments. On January 6, 1884, Mendel passed away at the age of 64, and his scientific research results were gradually forgotten. Sixteen years later, in 1900, three scientists simultaneously discovered the genetic laws studied by Mendel, which brought Mendel's scientific discoveries back to light. After reading Mendel's paper, three scientists agreed that Mendel should be credited with the discovery of genetic laws. Mendel's two basic laws of inheritance are: 1. Law of Separation: Genes are passed down from generation to generation as unique independent units. There are pairs of basic genetic units in the cells. In the reproductive cells of a hybrid, the pairs of genetic units come from the male parent and the female parent, and these genetic units are separated from each other when gametes are formed. In modern terms, this means that two genes (alleles) in a gene pair are located on two homologous chromosomes in pairs. During the production of sex cells in the parent organism, the alleles are separated, and half of the sex cells have one form of gene and the other half have another form of gene. The descendants formed from these sex cells reflect this ratio. 2. The law of independent distribution: Alleles in a gene pair on one pair of chromosomes can be inherited independently and independently of alleles in gene pairs on other pairs; and sex cells with different gene pairs can be randomly fused with sex cells from another parent. Mendel had figured out that any germ cell equivalent to a sperm cell or egg cell in the human body contained only one gene that was passed down accidentally from generation to generation. Mendel's two basic laws of inheritance were the starting point of new genetics, and Mendel was therefore called the founder of modern genetics by later generations.