Brno, July 23 (CTK) – The Mendel Museum of Masaryk University in Brno opened a new permanent exhibition on Saturday, which presents Johann Gregor Mendel (1822-84), the father of genetics, as a ordinary man who focused on various fields during his life.
The museum’s director Ondrej Dostal said pictures of Hyncice, Mandel’s native village, and places where he studied are shown within the exhibition as well as of his manuscripts whose originals are stored in the United States.
Masaryk University spokeswoman Tereza Fojtova said the museum’s representatives on Saturday buried a chest with people’s messages saying what they expected the world to look like in 50 years. She said the chest would be uncovered after half a century.
People wrote these messages within the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Mendel’s genetic discoveries last year, Fojtova said.
This year, Mendel’s anniversary is also remembered by the festival Mendel is Back that takes place in four places in the city. The festival’s main motive is a big shining pea, associating the pea plant experiments focusing on inheritance whose results Mendel first presented in Brno in March 1865. The importance of Mendel’s findings was recognised only three decades later, however.
