Google Doodle Has Us Counting Peas, Honors Gregor Mendel

The latest Google Doodle goes with its inspiration like peas in a pod. Bad jokes aside, the most recent Google alteration focuses on Gregor Mendel, the “father of modern genetics,” hence the use of peas to spell out the ubiquitous Google logo. While the Mendel logo, or at least the meaning behind it, may not be the favorite subject considering today’s ever-fracturing belief structures, at least in the United States, Google’s execution of it is once again accurate.

For those who aren’t aware, Mendel is credited with “discovering” genetics through his experimentation with growing peas. Through his trials, Mendel began to recognize recessive and dominant traits, and how they are propagated via offspring. From Wikipedia’s description — the first result for Google’s “Gregor Mendel” query:

Between 1856 and 1863 Mendel cultivated and tested some 29,000 pea plants (i.e., Pisum sativum). This study showed that one in four pea plants had purebred recessive alleles, two out of four were hybrid and one out of four were purebred dominant. His experiments led him to make two generalizations, the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment, which later became known as Mendel’s Laws of Inheritance.

Mendel’s experiments with peas leads directly to Google’s latest doodle. It should be noted that, not only is Mendel the focus of the latest Google Doodle — Happy 189th Birthday, sir — but he’s also the subject of a trending Twitter topic, obviously due to the Google logo. Nevertheless, if any of the tweens who (over?) populate Twitter accidentally learn something during their daily praises of all things Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black, then it’s been a productive day.

Does the fact that a friar “discovered” genetics meet the requisites to be labeled as ironic? Moving on, any thoughts on the latest Google Doodle? Is there a famous person, alive or dead, you’re hoping to see in future Google Doodles? Let us know.