A major exhibition has just opened in Austria, based on an award-winning book by a University of Sussex science historian.

Dr Jim Endersby was a historical consultant for the exhibition, which opened in Linz this week (16 October) and runs until March 2013.

He helped to devise the main structure and themes and wrote a first draft (in English!) of the display text that accompanies the objects and artefacts.

The exhibition, ‘Weiße Mäuse und Mendels Erbsen: Tiere und Pflanzen, die unser Weltbild verändern’ (‘White mice and Mendel’s peas: Animals and plants that change our view of the world’), is based on Dr Endersby’s book, A Guinea Pig's History of Biology.

He pays tribute to some classic laboratory organisms in the book, winner of the £10,000 Jerwood Award for non-fiction in progress and then published in 2007.

Dr Endersby recounts the individual stories of how guinea pigs, fruit flies, evening primroses and many other common species have aided and advanced our understanding of mysteries such as genetics.

In 2007 the book was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and it has been translated into Spanish.

A German translation - Weiße Mäuse und Mendels Erbsen - was published this week at the same time as the opening of the exhibition in Linz.