An eclectic blog on evolution & Darwiniana Written by Mark Pallen . The book Rough Guide to Evolution , given to 6000 students via Great Read at Birmingham . My other blog: bacterial pathogenomics Any opinions are mine, not my publisher's
Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel were contemporaries. One of the great “what ifs” in the history of science is “what if Darwin and Mendel had met to discuss each other’s work, or, at least, had exchanged notes?”
The closest they came to meeting was in the summer of 1862, when Mendel visited England to attend the International Exhibition , a world fair held in South Kensington. Charles Darwin was less than twenty miles away, but their paths never crossed as the Darwins were stuck at home, nursing their son Leonard through scarlet fever .