This document introduces heredity and Mendel's experiments that established the fundamental laws of inheritance. It discusses how DNA contains the genetic information that is contributed equally from both parents during reproduction. Mendel performed experiments with pea plants to study seven contrasting traits over multiple generations. His experiments demonstrated that traits segregate and only one allele is passed down from each parent, following a predictable pattern of dominant and recessive expression. His laws of segregation and dominance established that alleles separate and only one is expressed, while the law of independent assortment showed that two traits are passed down independently of each other during gamete formation.