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Google's homepage doodle today celebrates what would have been the 189th birthday of scientist Gregor Mendel.

"We celebrate Gregor Mendel, Austrian botanist & father of genetics, born July 20, 1822. Peas enjoy!" Google tweeted this morning.

The image spells out the Google logo using pea plants, which Mendel used to map out his well-known experiment between 1854 and 1864. His research, which included thousands of pea plants, "allowed Mendel to discern patterns that revealed 'elements' that are responsible for traits being passed from generation to generation," according to Chicago's Field Museum, which hosted a Mendel exhibit several years ago. Today, those "elements" are known as genes. Using the peas, Mendel was able to identify certain dominant and recessive traits, data that was presented in a series of 1865 lectures that eventually established him as the "father of genetics" and paved the way for modern genetic research, the Mendel Museum said.

According to the Field Museum, however, his work was not truly appreciated until after his death, when three scientists discovered his pea research in 1900.

Mendel completed this pea-related work in the garden of the Augustinian Abbey in Old Brno, Czech Republic, which he joined as a novice in 1843. He became an ordained priest four years later and was named abbot, or head of the monastery, in 1870, a job on which he remained focused until his death in 1884.