GREGOR MENDEL’s work on heredity has endured 156 years, despite his Christian views and disbelief in Darwin. He was also a gentleman scientist, like many of the day, working outside traditional science funding institutions. Despite the fact that nothing was known at the time about DNA, chromosomes, genes or meiosis, his rigorous observations have largely stood the test of time. Inconsistencies of his laws have been identified and explained by modern research.