The following is an actual conversation caught on tape in 1863, just after Gregor Mendel completed the work that would eventually be credited as the beginning of genetics in the Abbey of St Thomas in what is now the Czech Republic. I put this up because it reminds me of public debates today about science, most notably when then-candidate Sarah Palin expressed outrage that scientists spend government money studying fruit flies (one of the cornerstone species of genetics).
      Historians believe that what is recorded here is meeting that took place between Mendel and his boss, the abbot. This is the first time that it has been shown to the public.

GREGOR: Father, have you got a minute?
ABBOT: Sure, Gregor, but just a minute. I am actually really busy right now.
G: Look, I just wanted to update you on some of the work I've been doing in the garden over the past few years.
A: Great. I've been meaning to ask you about that. Go on, astound me.
G: Yeah, well, actually I think I might be on to something here. You see, using pea pods - well - I'm not sure but I think I may have discovered the field of genetics.
A: What?
G: Yeah, I know, right? I am really excited too.
A: I give you that giant plot of our garden and you come back to me with pea pods? Are you messing with me? No, I'm serious, tell me you are messing with me.
A: Wait, what?
G: Seriously, this is what you have been doing with your time out there? Breeding Moravian pea plants?
G: No, wait, I think you missed the headline, here. It's not the pea plants, it's the genetics.
A: Do you have any idea how much that garden plot is worth?
G: Well, no, not really, but I thought, you know, since it's a brand new field that advances humanity and in a roundabout way glorifies God, it would be kind of worth it.
A: (shaking his head) Look, Gregor, you're a good guy and a decent monk, but I've got to tell you, if I wanted a patch of crappy legumes on my front porch I would have hired a gardener. Didn't we send you to the University of Vienna to get a teaching degree?
G: Well, yes, and thank you for that.
A: And didn't you flunk out of that program?
G: Well, yeah, kinda.
A: And now that you've come back, you have used more of our resources to grow, what was it again ... pea plants?
G: Yeah, but I discovered genetics. That's worth something, right?
A: You couldn't discover it with something cool, like passion fruit?
G: I don't think passion fruit grows in Moravia.
A: You're missing the freaking point, Gregor. Nobody likes peas. They look like little green turds and taste like lawn clippings. What about discovering genetics with something like potatoes? They're very big in Ireland I hear.
G: Aren't we getting off track, here? I mean, who cares what I used? This could someday be used to create potatoes the size of houses. Or mutant people with lasers for eyes.
A: What are lasers?
G: It's not important. The important thing is that this is big.
A: Fine, okay. Look, to get you out of my office, I will tell you that your pea plants are very impressive. Nice job. Very proud of you. Nobel freaking Prize for you.
G: Nobels don't exist yet, but if they did I bet I would get one.
A: Fine. Is that all?
G: Not exactly.
A: What. What else do you want from me? Perhaps you'd like to grow chard in the pews now?
G: No, I was ... well, I wanted to know if I could set up a little fenced-in area to work with chimpanzees. To see if my theories apply to primates as well.
A: No way. Forget about it.
G: Okay, what about pigs? They're similar to humans in some ways.
A: Nope. Fat chance. They smell bad and Jewish people don't like them.
G: Okay, rats? Please?
A: Tell you what, Gregor, I'll let you go into the woods and collect some bees. They're animals, right?
G: Yeah, I guess.
A: Or are they plants? I'm not good with the natural world.
G: No, they're animals.
A: Great. Then go out and study them. Oh, but keep in mind that I will want 35 percent of all the honey output.
G: Thirty five? Is that gross or net?
A: Gross. And make it 40. Now get out of here before I change my mind.
G: Okay. Thanks, Father.
A: Sure. Oh, and just in case you are right about this whole "geletics" thing, I will swing down this afternoon and have my picture taken in front of your pea plants.
G: It's "genetics." And the modern camera hasn't really been invented yet either.
A: Then I'll just do something else for the abbey website. A painting maybe. Close the door on your way out.

End Note: Mendel did extend his work to bees and had a lovely time creating hyper-aggressive strains that terrorized the surrounding town, but struggled to understand how genetics were at play in animals. Eventually after a number of setbacks involving strains of hawkweed that - by no fault of his own - confused his theories, Mendel abandoned his biology work.