" Initially, Mendel’s work on the mating habits of mice seemed simple enough. But eventually, to Schaffgotsch, it simply went too far.3 For starters, the caged rodents in Mendel’s spacious, stone-floored quarters gave off a stench that Schaffgotsch found incompatible with the tidy life expected of a monk of the Augustinian order. Then there was the sex. Mendel, who like all of the monks at St. Thomas had taken a vow of consecrated chastity, seemed obsessively interested in how the furry little creatures were getting it on. That, Schaffgotsch figured, was beyond the pale. So the dour bishop ordered the inquisitive young monk to shut down his little mouse brothel. If Mendel were, as he professed, purely interested in how traits move from one generation of living creatures to the next, he’d have to be content with something less titillating. Something like peas. "

― Sharon Moalem , Inheritance: How Our Genes Change Our Lives—and Our Lives Change Our Genes