Gregor Johann Mendel is a famous scientist that was born in Austria on July 22, 1822. Mendel's fame came from his research in the monastery garden. His experiments were based on the modern hereditary theory. Mendel bred thousands of plants and observed the characteristics of each successive generation. Mendel also did experiments by breeding garden peas, which led us to our modern understanding of heredity. British farmers had performed similar breeding experiments over 200 years before Mendel. But Mendel was the first to develop rules that accurately predict patterns of heredity. Mendel discovered patterns that form the basis of genetics. Genetics is the branch of biology that focuses on heredity. Mendel bred thousands