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Gregor Mendel was the first person to make precise observations about the biological mechanism of inheritance. This happened a little over 100 years ago in Austria, where Mendel spent his leisure hours performing experiments with pea plants of different types. He crossed them carefully and Look notes about the appearance of various traits, or characteristics, in succeeding generations. From his observations, Mendel formed a set of rules, now known as the Mendelian Laws of Inheritance, which were found to apply not only to plants but to animals and human beings as well. This was the beginning of the modern science of genetics.