When the sun’s rays shine on the Earth, part of the light energy is absorbed as heat by the Earth’s surface while the rest is reflected back into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases act like the glass surface of a greenhouse and reflect the heat back to the earth, resulting in an increase in temperature.

In the mid-1800s, Gregor Johann Mendel, now known as the father of genetics, experimented with pea plants and drew many conclusions about genetics from his results. Ever since then, scientists have bred crops to try to create strains that could give greater yields or thrive in harsher conditions.