Lysenko

[Kamil]

what the hell was lysenko all about? :confused:

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Lysenko was a Soviet scientist who subscribed to a form of Lamarckism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarckism).

The problem being, adherence to Lysenkoism was based on politcal and not scientific merit. Proponents of Darwinian evolution found themselves in some very sticky situations, because Lysenko had wormed his up the Soviet hierarchy and was not afraid to use his political influence to silence or intimidate his peers.

It might also serve to explain why Russia today isn't exactly a world leader in biotechnology.

[Ocean Seal]

what the hell was lysenko all about? :confused:
Lysenko was a Soviet scientist who boycotted Mendelian genetics. The problem with this was that as Noxion said, his opponents were silenced on political and not scientific merit. Basically the idea was that genetics was a science that fascists and social-darwinists particularly admired and was used to rationalize some pretty ridiculous conclusions and of course was invariably linked to eugenics. But thats a political criticism, and science should never come under the scope of political bias.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Lysenko reminds me a lot of the attitude some on the Left have of the gene-centred view of evolution. Social reactionaries can use knowledge of the natural world to fallaciously derive an ought from an is, but we should be attacking proponents of that fallacy, the people who say we must be slaves to our selfish genes.

[Red_Struggle]

A good read of Lysenko and his role of Soviet politics can be found here: http://ml-review.ca/aml/Lysenko/LysenkoPT4.htm

I'm in the process of reading it myself.