Gregor Mendel was the first scientist to use statistics to analyze scientific data. Before Mendel’s experiments, scientists believed that organisms acquired traits from their environment and passed them on to their offspring. After Mendel’s discoveries were accepted, scientists realized that traits passed to offspring were the result of genes being passed from parents to offspring. This is an example of A) a theory changing because a new scientific method was developed. B) a law changing because a new scientific method was developed. C) a hypothesis changing because a new scientific method was developed. D) an observation changing because a new scientific method was developed

The scenario described represents an instance of scientific understanding evolving due to new experimental evidence, which led to a shift in the accepted explanation of how traits are inherited.

The correct answer is: A) a theory changing because a new scientific method was developed.

• Gregor Mendel's experiments with pea plants laid the foundation for modern genetics. His careful observations, data collection, and statistical analysis of inheritance patterns led to the formulation of Mendel's laws of inheritance, which later became a fundamental aspect of the theory of genetics. Before Mendel's experiments, the prevalent belief among scientists was based on a different understanding of inheritance, known as the theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics.
• However, Mendel's work and subsequent acceptance of his discoveries caused a paradigm shift in the scientific community's understanding of heredity, shifting from the idea of acquired characteristics to the concept of discrete units of inheritance (genes) passed from parents to offspring. This marked the transition from the previous theory to the newer theory supported by experimental evidence, illustrating the evolution of scientific understanding based on empirical data and the development of a new scientific method.