In the early 18th century a French zoologist, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed a theory of so-called \u201csoft inheritance\u201d that predated Charles Darwin\u2019s theory of evolution based on variation and natural selection. Lamarck believed that traits acquired during the lifetime of an individual organism can be passed on to the next generation. Two examples were often cited: 1) a blacksmith develops strong muscles and his offspring spontaneously have natural strength; 2) giraffes strained their necks to reach ever higher leaves and progressively longer necks were passed along over generations.<\/p>\n
In short, heredity advancement driven by desire. Lamarkianism considered evolution as a process that drives species toward ever greater complexity. Darwinian evolution assumes that random mutations happen all the time. Over time, the population accumulates mutations and sometimes one of them confers an advantage to the species. The advantage can be obvious (e.g., able to run faster to catch prey) or obscure (able to digest a previously indigestible food). Unlike Lamarck\u2019s vision, this process is not directed to more complexity (i.e., intelligence). It simply improves the ability to successfully compete in the existing environment of the time and location.<\/p>\n
Efforts to find support for Lamarck\u2019s concept generally met with failure. In contrast, today there are many million individual pieces of evidence in every branch of biology, all of which support and none of which refute the essential correctness of Darwin\u2019s theory. At this point, life theoretically evolved in the same sense that the water is theoretically wet.<\/p>\n
By the 1930s the newly emerging field of genetics was growing in popularity, based primarily on the studies of the Austrian biologist and Catholic abbot Gregor Mendel. At about this same time a Ukrainian agronomist and scientist named Trofim Lysenko developed an odd, pseudoscientific version of Lamarckianism that he promoted in preference to the Mendelian concepts of heredity. Lysenko\u2019s ideas appealed to then Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, who believed that concept of self-driven improvement was a better fit for communist doctrine than Mendelian heredity. Lysenko was appointed as the director of the Institute of Genetics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n
Lysenko leveraged his newfound power to suppress Soviet geneticists\u2019 opinions and to discredit and imprison them. His invalid hypotheses were thus elevated to the level of state-sanctioned dogma. Geneticists were fired from their posts and rendered ruble-less. Hundreds and possibly as many as thousands of scientists were imprisoned, and some were sentenced to death \u2013 denounced as enemies of the state.<\/p>\n
Implementation of Lysenko\u2019s policies predictably led to a massive famine that killed literally millions of Ukrainians. Turns out potatoes cannot will themselves to be more productive for humans. In 1958 the People\u2019s Republic of China adopted neo-Lamaarckianism, culminating in the Chinese Famine of 1959 to 1961. I recall as a kid that if I failed to eat all of my broccoli, my grandmother would tell me there were people starving in China. She was right, but it was all on Lysenko\u2026not me. Lysenko\u2019s policies crippled agricultural science in the Soviet Union for decades.<\/p>\n
Any of this ring a bell? At least Lysenko was actually a scientist, albeit a misguided one. We currently have an HHS Secretary in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. whose dissemination of misinformation about vaccines in the form of books, commentaries and public announcements is now too voluminous to quantify. He has no foundation in vaccine development, monitoring of vaccine safety, efficacy and impact, documentation of actual vaccine adverse events (as opposed to fantasy injuries) or any other aspect of vaccine technology.<\/p>\n
Some of his personal attacks warrant lawsuits for slander. He is so far out of his depth it would take him years to swim down to the level of his competence. He has fired literally 1,000’s of HHS employees, one assumes because they were actually trying to perform the jobs they were hired to do. He fired the Centers for Disease Control director, Susan Monarez<\/a>, for refusing to promote directives that she knew were scientifically unsupportable.<\/p>\n Several other high-level CDC executives also resigned in solidarity. Carolyn Leavitt, White House Press Secretary and professional sycophant, defended the move because any member working in the federal government who disagrees with the president\u2019s agenda should be \u201cshown the door.\u201d Susan Monarez and the scientists who followed suit are heroes. Billboards praising them to the heavens should be erected in every major city in the country. Thank heavens scientific integrity is still alive and well.<\/p>\n