Politics and Science Just Don’t Mix

Re “A Chokehold on Scientists,” editorial, July 22: Here’s an object lesson on treating scientists as advocates for policy rather than for scientific truth.

Trofim Lysenko (1898-1976) was a Soviet plant biologist who claimed that “bourgeois” genetics was contrary to Marx and that plants inherited acquired characteristics. The theory, as Lysenko himself knew, was rubbish, but it appealed to Stalin, and Lysenko became the official Soviet spokesman for proletarian plant biology.

His theory wrecked Soviet plant biology and agriculture for two decades and he was finally dismissed by Nikita Khrushchev. Were he not dead, Lysenko would feel right at home in a “policy” position in the Bush administration.

Philip Lohman

Lakewood

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It is unbelievable that a scientist cannot participate on the World Health Organization panel without government approval. I am horrified that to disagree with policy is unpatriotic. Where is our collective outrage?

Laura Birns

Del Mar