1) Mendel studied inheritance of traits in pea plants and developed the laws of genetics through extensive experimentation.
2) The Law of Segregation states that organisms pass one of two alleles to their offspring and these alleles segregate during gamete formation such that a cross between heterozygotes results in a 3:1 phenotypic ratio.
3) The Law of Independent Assortment demonstrated that two traits assort independently during gamete formation, resulting in a 9:3:3:1 phenotypic ratio for a dihybrid cross. Mendel's work laid the foundation for modern genetics.