In the nineteenth century, French anatomist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) attempted to explain such things as why giraffe had long necks. Lamarck had reasoned that a giraffe, by stretching its neck to get leaves, actually made its neck lengthen and that this longer neck was then somehow passed on to offspring. According to Lamarck, the long-necked giraffe resulted from generation after generation of giraffe stretching their necks to reach higher into trees for food.
Unfortunately for Lysenko—and even more so for Soviet science—Lamarck's theory of evolution by acquired characteristics was incorrect. Scientists now understand that individual traits are, for the most part, determined by an inherited code contained in the DNA of each cell and are not influenced in any meaningful way by use or disuse. Further, Darwinian natural selection more accurately explains the long necks of the giraffe as a physical adaptation that allowed exploitation of a readily available food supply that, in turn, resulted in enhanced reproductive success for "long necks."
Despite the fact that Lamarck's theory of evolution by acquired characteristics had been widely discarded as a scientific hypothesis, a remarkable set of circumstances allowed Lysenko the opportunity to sweep aside more than 100 years of scientific investigation to advocate a "politically correct" way to enhance agricultural production.
This is a free page. This page contains 195 words. This
article contains 1,575 words (approx. 5 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our The Disastrous Effects of Lysenkoism on Soviet Agriculture Access Pass.
