Lessons from Lysenko

Marks, John

Abstract

This chapter explores the question of whether we can still “learn lessons” from Lysenkoism. Contemporary allusions are often narrowly polemical, usually making the claim that scientific work is being marginalised for non-scientific reasons. However, one of the lessons of Lysenkoism is that there can be no straightforward separation of science from ideology, politics and economics. Also, recent developments in developmental biology have suggested that Lamarckism may have been prematurely dismissed as erroneous science as a consequence of Lysenkoism. The chapter argues that the emerging paradigm of plasticity ironically revives in a contemporary neoliberal iteration Lysenkoism’s promise of abundance delivered by the capacity to manipulate and engineer life.

Citation

Marks, J. (2017). Lessons from Lysenko. In W. deJong-Lambert, & N. Krementsov (Eds.), The Lysenko Controversy As A Global Phenomenon - Volume 2 (185-206). Palgrave MacMillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39179-3_7

• Online Publication Date: Feb 7, 2017
• Publication Date: 2017
• Deposit Date: Sep 26, 2017
• Pages: 185-206
• Series Title: Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology
• Book Title: The Lysenko Controversy As A Global Phenomenon - Volume 2
• ISBN: 978-3-319-39178-6
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39179-3_7
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1126108
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-39179-3_7