Lysenko's contributions to biology and his tragedies.
Trofim Denisovich Lysenko's life and work have been much analyzed and discussed in the world's literature. It is well known that Lysenko is notorious and has been regarded as a charlatan. Less well known is that he once made greater contributions to Biology and has been misunderstood in some aspects. In this paper, Lysenko s contributions to plant physiology, genetics, agro-biology and evolutionary biology are briefly reviewed. His tragedies and mistakes, such as mixing science and politics, denying the existence of genes, failing to build up suitable scientific collectives for the metabolism-biochemical studies of heredity, as well as his theoretical one-sidedness, are also discussed, thus reconsidering the case of Lysenko from a comprehensive and objective viewpoint.
Liu
Yongsheng
Y
Department of Horticulture, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang, China. ysliu63@yahoo.ca
D000383:Agriculture / Q000266:history; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001695:Biology / Q000266:history*; D001901:Botany / Q000266:history; D005823:Genetics / Q000266:history; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D008954:Models, Biological; D011057:Politics; D012426:Russia