Mendelmania Takes Off
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www.sciam.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 33 STEPAN BARTOS news SCAN The Abbey of St. Thomas isn’t the only place in Brno to pay homage to Mendel. The first major Mendel museum is actually the Mendelianum. It was founded by a small group of Czech geneticists in 1965 in the white baroque compound of the abbey but has moved off those premises to a government building. The Mendelianum has two new exhibits: one, on the genetic refutation of racism, is to open in the fall of 2003; the other, called “The Scientific Milieu of Mendel’s Discovery,” can be viewed at a branch of the Moravian Museum in Brno’s central square. MENDEL OFF ABBEY ROAD E very high school biology student learns of Gregor Mendel and his classic stud- ies of inheritance. As the importance of genetics soared in the 20th century, so did Mendel’s fame—except in his homeland. He was blacklisted in the former Soviet Union and its satellites as the founder of a “reactionary” discipline, and Mendelian genetics was de- clared a pseudoscience. Only now are efforts under way to pay him fitting tribute in the city in which he lived and worked all his adult life. An Augustinian monk and later abbot at the Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno—once in Austria-Hungary, today part of the Czech Re- public—Mendel revealed the laws of inheri- tance by experimenting with pea hybrids in the walled monastic garden. His 1866 paper, rediscovered around 1900, well after his death, laid the foundations for contemporary genetics. The notion that traits are inherited, however, ran afoul of Stalin and other Com- munist leaders; they advocated Lysenkoism, which claimed that acquired traits, rather than genetic ones, were passed on. Even after Lysenkoism was condemned as a fraud in 1965, Mendel remained an outcast because his religious background offended the Com- munist Czech goverment, which would last until 1989. “Starting in 1990, I tried to put forward the idea of commemorating him, but people were hesitant,” says Emil Palecek, a professor at the Czech Academy of Sciences’s Institute of Biophysics in Brno. “Though it’s not true for scientists, many other people here still have a feeling that something was wrong with Mendel.” An international initiative launched this year aims to bring the science of ge- netics back to its spurned cradle. Its champions include St. Thomas’s cur- rent abbot, along with local and for- eign scientists, backed by such notables as Czech president Vaclav Havel and Nobel laureates Paul M. Nurse, James D. Watson and Eric F. Wieschaus. One move has been to hold scientific con- ferences at the abbey. The first was a work- shop called “Genetics after the Genome,” held there by the European Molecular Biology Or- ganization this past May. In September the opening sessions of a chemometrics confer- ence took place in the newly renovated refec- tory, and in August 2003 the abbey is to host an international symposium on the genetic as- pects of heart disease. Furthermore, an exhi- bition, “The Genius of Genetics,” combining science with art, has opened at the abbey; it will run until May 2003 (see www.mendel- museum.org). Plans are already being drawn up for a follow-up exhibition, a restoration of Mendel’s experimental garden, a permanent museum and a life sciences center. Much of the cash for the initiative has come from the VFG, a Viennese charity. Two Gregor Mendel trusts, in the U.K. and the U.S., have been established for larger-scale projects. The abbey’s exhibition shop covers some of the costs in ways the modest Augustinian friar could never have imagined: Mendel pencils, provide the fodder for proponents and who sometimes co-author anthropology papers. Butzer questions whether they understand the complexity of cultural change. “They’re like a fish out of water,” he says. “They should keep their mouths shut.” Michael E. Moseley, an archaeologist at the University of Florida, is certain that cli- mate will continue to figure prominently in research on human history. “It will probably take another 10 to 15 years for younger peo- ple who are not so indentured to old ideas for this to shake out,” he says. Yale’s Weiss is less diplomatic: “Science changes one funeral at a time.” Daniel Grossman is a writer and radio producer based in Watertown, Mass. Mendelmania Takes Off THE OSTRACIZED FATHER OF GENETICS FINALLY GETS HIS DAY BY LUBA VIKHANSKI HISTORY OF SCIENCE MICROSCOPE SLIDES and other tools that Gregor Mendel may have used are displayed at the Abbey of St. Thomas. COPYRIGHT 2002 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
Transcript of Mendelmania Takes Off
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The Abbey of St. Thomas isn’t theonly place in Brno to pay homageto Mendel. The first major Mendelmuseum is actually theMendelianum. It was founded by a small group of Czech geneticistsin 1965 in the white baroquecompound of the abbey but hasmoved off those premises to agovernment building. TheMendelianum has two newexhibits: one, on the geneticrefutation of racism, is to open inthe fall of 2003; the other, called“The Scientific Milieu of Mendel’sDiscovery,” can be viewed at abranch of the Moravian Museum inBrno’s central square.
MENDEL OFFABBEY ROAD
E very high school biology student learnsof Gregor Mendel and his classic stud-ies of inheritance. As the importance of
genetics soared in the 20th century, so didMendel’s fame—except in his homeland. Hewas blacklisted in the former Soviet Union andits satellites as the founder of a “reactionary”discipline, and Mendelian genetics was de-clared a pseudoscience. Only now are effortsunder way to pay him fitting tribute in the cityin which he lived and worked all his adult life.
An Augustinian monk and later abbot atthe Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno—once inAustria-Hungary, today part of the Czech Re-public—Mendel revealed the laws of inheri-tance by experimenting with pea hybrids inthe walled monastic garden. His 1866 paper,rediscovered around 1900, well after hisdeath, laid the foundations for contemporarygenetics. The notion that traits are inherited,however, ran afoul of Stalin and other Com-munist leaders; they advocated Lysenkoism,which claimed that acquired traits, ratherthan genetic ones, were passed on. Even afterLysenkoism was condemned as a fraud in1965, Mendel remained an outcast becausehis religious background offended the Com-munist Czech goverment, which would lastuntil 1989.
“Starting in 1990, I tried to put forwardthe idea of commemorating him, but peoplewere hesitant,” says Emil Palecek, a professorat the Czech Academy of Sciences’s Instituteof Biophysics in Brno. “Though it’s not truefor scientists, many other people here still
have a feeling that something waswrong with Mendel.”
An international initiative launchedthis year aims to bring the science of ge-netics back to its spurned cradle. Itschampions include St. Thomas’s cur-rent abbot, along with local and for-eign scientists, backed by such notablesas Czech president Vaclav Havel andNobel laureates Paul M. Nurse, JamesD. Watson and Eric F. Wieschaus.
One move has been to hold scientific con-ferences at the abbey. The first was a work-shop called “Genetics after the Genome,” heldthere by the European Molecular Biology Or-ganization this past May. In September theopening sessions of a chemometrics confer-ence took place in the newly renovated refec-tory, and in August 2003 the abbey is to hostan international symposium on the genetic as-pects of heart disease. Furthermore, an exhi-bition, “The Genius of Genetics,” combiningscience with art, has opened at the abbey; itwill run until May 2003 (see www.mendel-museum.org). Plans are already being drawnup for a follow-up exhibition, a restoration ofMendel’s experimental garden, a permanentmuseum and a life sciences center.
Much of the cash for the initiative hascome from the VFG, a Viennese charity. TwoGregor Mendel trusts, in the U.K. and the U.S.,have been established for larger-scale projects.The abbey’s exhibition shop covers some ofthe costs in ways the modest Augustinian friarcould never have imagined: Mendel pencils,
provide the fodder for proponents and whosometimes co-author anthropology papers.Butzer questions whether they understandthe complexity of cultural change. “They’relike a fish out of water,” he says. “Theyshould keep their mouths shut.”
Michael E. Moseley, an archaeologist atthe University of Florida, is certain that cli-mate will continue to figure prominently in
research on human history. “It will probablytake another 10 to 15 years for younger peo-ple who are not so indentured to old ideas forthis to shake out,” he says. Yale’s Weiss is lessdiplomatic: “Science changes one funeral ata time.”
Daniel Grossman is a writer and radio producer based in Watertown, Mass.
Mendelmania Takes OffTHE OSTRACIZED FATHER OF GENETICS FINALLY GETS HIS DAY BY LUBA VIKHANSKI
HIS
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MICROSCOPE SLIDES and othertools that Gregor Mendel may haveused are displayed at the Abbey of St. Thomas.
COPYRIGHT 2002 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
34 S C I E N T I F I C A M E R I C A N D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 2
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Scientists at the National Museumof Namibia can go outside theirvarious fields more easily thaninvestigators at European and
North American institutions can.Eugène Marais, whose main area of
research is entomology, iscollaborating with colleagues from
U.S. universities on a study tomeasure the aridity of conditions
in Namibia during the past 130,000years. And he has written a paper
with Australian colleagues thatreports on which microclimates
within caves are chosen byNamibian bats for roosting.
FREETO ROAM The National Museum of Namibia is a
tiny institution. On paper, it reservesplaces for 12 natural scientists, but its
staff is currently a third of that level. Its size,though, has not prevented it from making amajor contribution to the natural sciences.
The museum helped to turn up living ex-emplars of an unknown insect order, Man-tophasmatodea, dubbed more familiarly“gladiators” [see “Gladiators: A New InsectOrder,” by Joachim Adis, Oliver Zompro,Esther Moombolah-Goagoses and EugèneMarais; Scientific American, November].Eugène Marais, the museum’s senior curatorfor natural history, observes that the Namib-ian institution might not have played the roleit did but for a decision by the museum staffin 1999 that allowed it to make the best useof its limited resources. It was then thatMarais and four colleagues met to commiser-ate about how difficult it had become to dothe type of research carried out at better-en-dowed institutions. No one wanted to lendbooks and specimens to investigators in aThird World country—and it was hard tocome up with the funds to travel abroad. “Westarted looking at it from a sociological per-spective,” Marais remarks. “We said, ‘We cando research, but we can’t be very effective.’”
From that informal meeting, a new strat-egy emerged. The staff decided that it wouldtry, for the most part, to forgo independent,publishable research; rather its memberswould function as “facilitators” for other in-stitutions. The naturalists would provide sci-entists worldwide with collected samples ofinsects, snakes, spiders, scorpions and the ret-
inue of diverse fauna, some of which can befound only in Namibia. As facilitators, theywould not have to conduct laborious taxo-nomic classifications of the specimens theyfound on their travels.
If the museum had not changed its prac-tices, Marais says, he might have been slow inresponding when the Max Planck Institute forLimnology in Plön, Germany, sought out liv-ing specimens of gladiators. As it was, the mu-seum was the sole African institution thatpromptly recognized the insect.
The new approach has been fruitful; over-all productivity of the scientists has gone up.From the collection, Marais and his col-leagues have been able to assist in the cata-loguing of about 30 new species every year—
had the museum been doing the work on itsown, it would have logged just half that num-ber. These discoveries have come from the8,000 specimens sent around the world an-nually to 30 to 40 institutions, which thenproceed to classify the shipments.
Acting as research scouts gives scientistsmore latitude to conduct cross-disciplinarystudies. Marais has also pursued an interest indocumenting the insect classification systemsdeveloped by the San Bushmen and other trib-al groups. Although the Bushmen categoriza-tions lack scientific rigor, they can providehints about where a researcher should lookfor a specimen. Marais noted that the Bush-men in northeastern Namibia have names foreight species of bees, whereas only two havebeen recorded by entomologists, a disparitythat suggests that naturalists still have muchwork left to do.
Making DoTHIRD WORLD NATURALISTS COPE WITH SCARCE RESOURCES BY GARY STIX
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notepads, cups and even a brand of Mendelbeer. And there’s talk of restoring Mendel’sbeehive (he bred bees in an attempt to confirmhis pea data) and selling Mendel honey.
A major Mendel revival would be a boonto Czech science, long isolated during the Com-munist era. The revival is further supported by
the city of Brno as a means of boosting tourism.And last but not least, it makes up for the long,obliterating neglect in his own land of one ofhistory’s greatest scientific visionaries.
Luba Vikhanski, based in Tel Aviv, did notsee any Mendel frozen peas at the gift shop.
ENTOMOLOGY often brings EugèneMarais to the Brandberg, Namibia’shighest peak.
COPYRIGHT 2002 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
