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There’s more to the story of Trofim Lysenko and the Soviet Union’s most disastrous era of science than you probably realize. Everyone knows of “Lysenkoism” regarding the USSR’s failed theories of genetics, but Trofim Lysenko’s lifelong body work was driven by a perfect combination of history, revolution, political theory, power, and personalities.
Lysenko’s impact on Russian biology was a direct result of crafting science — and scientists — in service of Vladimir Lenin’s new Soviet man at a time when the international scientific community was making tremendous progress on genetics and biology. But to Lysenko and Josef Stalin, the real science was in the potential of plants and animals to behave like Soviet citizens.
That led Russia and its scientists down a path that derailed progress for decades. But what if Lysenko’s theories on the inheritance of acquired traits actually have merit? A resurgence of support for Lysenko has gone beyond the grim history of science to look at what we know about altering the expression of DNA and how a human’s experiences in life can even affect their grandchildren. The truth is that modern genetics has little to nothing to do with Lysenko, but the specter of his pseudoscience continues to haunt the disciplines of genetics and biology — and science as a whole.
*** SOURCES / ADDITIONAL READING ***
“Lysenko’s Ghost: Epigenetics and Russia” by Loren Graham: https://bit.ly/3ReCEpT
“A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924” by Orlando Figes: https://bit.ly/4a8Ti32
“Stalin and the Scientists: A History of Triumph and Tragedy” by Simon Ings: https://amzn.to/3RwD5NE
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Hosted and Produced by Kevin Lieber
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Research and Writing by Matthew Tabor
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Editing by John Swan
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Huge Thanks To Paula Lieber
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