[Herodotus38]

This may be covered but one absurdity that I came across was https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism

When I was an undergraduate working in a molecular biology lab my two mentors, Andrei and Svetlana were Russian emigrants. Andrei taught me, in the 00s, that he couldn’t do the level of molecular biology in Russia because the downstream effects decades later put them far behind in the technical and cultural knowhow. Genetics was banned.

[baxtr]

> More than 3,000 mainstream biologists were dismissed or imprisoned, and numerous scientists were executed in the Soviet campaign to suppress scientific opponents.

Scientists were executed… ok wow

[Duanemclemore]

There's a great episode of the podcast The Constant about Lysenkoism. Definitely worth a listen.

I can't find the link at the moment, apologies.

[Duanemclemore]

Ah, I guess I made up that it was The Constant... what I must have been thinking of is the episode on Lysenkoism by the legendary Melvyn Bragg on In Our Time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00bw51j

[Herodotus38]

Thanks for the follow up I couldn’t find it!

[Duanemclemore]

Apologies for leading you astray at first. I couldn't find it FOR THE LIFE OF ME either.

If you guys aren't already fans of In Our Time, I'm delighted to be the one to turn you on to it. It's the Liberal Arts education you didn't get in school... And I say that as someone who GOT a Lib Arts education.

There are over a thousand episodes and it's all a brilliant quick study on an unbelievable variety of subjects.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl/episodes/player?pa...

[cyberax]

> Genetics was banned.

During the 1940-s. And yet it undermined the molecular biology research in the USSR. It's very easy to destroy the institutions of scientific research.

I'm sure, nothing like this can happen in the US. It's not possible that people in power will just use theological and ideological reasons to just deny sound scientific results.

[IAmBroom]

I can only assume this is missing the "/s" tag.

[mindslight]

Awareness of the concept has gained renewed importance in 2025.

[agumonkey]

Did they experience the rule of only studying soviet science ?

[Herodotus38]

No they were in college in the 80s when things were more open, but Andrei’s point was that compared to a lot of other sciences, molecular biology like cloning genes was decades behind because of the past.