Rating: 
Summary: Well worth reading
Review: This is a such wonderful a biography of Gregor Mendel, that I was startled to see so many 2 star ratings. It is easy to read and understand even if you lack a significant scientific education. Rather than citing just the bare facts, Robin Marantz Henig writes like a novelist. She interweaves the scientific debates before, during, and after Mendel's time with the importance of his discovery. Mendel had no model to follow, no fellow researchers to encourage him, no context into which to put his research, and no vocabulary to describe the genetics he was documenting. His paper on the subject was largely ignored... and then rediscovered 35 years later. Perhaps Mendel got a lucky break in choosing Moravian peas because their characteristics were readily identifiable. Or perhaps it is those characteristics, seed color, seed texture, plant height, that caused him find his work. In modern times it can be seen as rather ironic that the initial work in genetics, the work that was needed to support Darwin, was developed by a monk in a monastery. But monks were the conservers of all the great ancient works. Their monasteries contained the libraries of Europe throughout the middle ages. The monks were the literate class. St. Augustine stated that you talk to God when you pray, but God talks to you when you read. And Mendel's monastery followed Augustinian doctrine. That quiet isolation and contemplation may also have been essential to conducting the work. Growing and recording peas does not seem stimulating. Henig writes "By the time Mendel was done with this succession of crosses, recrosses, and backcrosses, he must have counted a total of more than 10,000 plants, 40,000 blossoms, and a staggering 300,000 peas." Mandel had fragile psyche, which was both the cause and effect of his failures. He could not pass a qualifying exam that would allow him to teach high school. His test anxiety was so great that on his second attempt, he started just one question and gave up. He would take to his bed for months at a time. He and his work were ignored while others attained fame and the respect of the scientific community. And yet, despite disappointments and lack or recognition, Mendel persevered. This is a biography well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth reading
Review: This is a such wonderful a biography of Gregor Mendel, that I was startled to see so many 2 star ratings. It is easy to read and understand even if you lack a significant scientific education. Rather than citing just the bare facts, Robin Marantz Henig writes like a novelist. She interweaves the scientific debates before, during, and after Mendel's time with the importance of his discovery. Mendel had no model to follow, no fellow researchers to encourage him, no context into which to put his research, and no vocabulary to describe the genetics he was documenting. His paper on the subject was largely ignored... and then rediscovered 35 years later. Perhaps Mendel got a lucky break in choosing Moravian peas because their characteristics were readily identifiable. Or perhaps it is those characteristics, seed color, seed texture, plant height, that caused him find his work. In modern times it can be seen as rather ironic that the initial work in genetics, the work that was needed to support Darwin, was developed by a monk in a monastery. But monks were the conservers of all the great ancient works. Their monasteries contained the libraries of Europe throughout the middle ages. The monks were the literate class. St. Augustine stated that you talk to God when you pray, but God talks to you when you read. And Mendel's monastery followed Augustinian doctrine. That quiet isolation and contemplation may also have been essential to conducting the work. Growing and recording peas does not seem stimulating. Henig writes "By the time Mendel was done with this succession of crosses, recrosses, and backcrosses, he must have counted a total of more than 10,000 plants, 40,000 blossoms, and a staggering 300,000 peas." Mandel had fragile psyche, which was both the cause and effect of his failures. He could not pass a qualifying exam that would allow him to teach high school. His test anxiety was so great that on his second attempt, he started just one question and gave up. He would take to his bed for months at a time. He and his work were ignored while others attained fame and the respect of the scientific community. And yet, despite disappointments and lack or recognition, Mendel persevered. This is a biography well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: College senior seminar
Review: When I read 'The Monk in the Garden' last summer I immediately thought it would make a good text for the genetics senior seminar I regularly teach here at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Now, as the semester draws to an end, I'm happy to report that the seminar has been rated by me and and the students as one of best ever! (One student is so impressed that he's developing a web page for the seminar in fulfillment of a requirement in another course.) We attribute much of the seminar's appeal to Henig.s clever and suspenseful narration. I almost never repeat the same seminar topic, but I intend to do this one _at least one more time. dbp
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