 The fact that all living things inherit traits from their parents is information that has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding.The biological science of genetics, which began with the work of Gregor Mendel in the mid-nineteenth century, seeks to understand the process of inheritance and the physical basis for heredity in our DNA.What is known about human traits inherited through patients' families can save their lives—that is why gathering a person's complete and accurate medical family history is extremely important even as genetic medicine continues to explain more diseases.