1. Genetics is the study of heredity and variation. Heredity refers to the transmission of traits from parents to offspring, while variation refers to differences between parents and offspring or among individuals of the same species.
2. Gregor Mendel conducted experiments with pea plants in the 1850s and 1860s, and is considered the founder of genetics. He demonstrated that traits are passed from parents to offspring via discrete units of inheritance called factors, now known as genes.
3. Mendel established basic principles of inheritance, including dominance, segregation, independent assortment, and the concept of alleles. His work laid the foundation for modern genetics although it was not widely recognized until the early 1900s.