From eugenics to lysenkoism: the evolution of Stanisław Skowron.
نویسنده
چکیده
This article describes the relationship between Polish geneticist Stanisław Skowron's views on eugenics during the interwar period, his experiences in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and his response to Trofim D. Lysenko's ban on genetic research in Soviet-allied states after 1948. Skowron was educated at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to study in the United States, Italy, Denmark, and Great Britain from 1924 to 1926. His exposure to research being conducted outside of Poland made him an important figure in Polish genetics. During this time Skowron also began to believe that an understanding of biological principles of heredity could play an important role in improving Polish society and became a supporter of eugenics. In 1939 he was arrested along with other faculty members at the Jagiellonian and sent to Sachsenhausen and Dachau. In 1947 he published the first book updating Polish biologists on recent developments in genetics; however, after learning of the outcome of the 1948 session of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Moscow, Skowron emerged as on of the most vocal advocates for Michurinism. I argue that Skowron's conversion to Lysenkoism was motivated by more than fear or opportunism, and is better understood as the product of his need to rationalize his own support for a theory he could not possibly have believed was correct.
منابع مشابه
Eugenics and Ethical Considerations Regarding the Violation of Justice
It is clear that technologies related to medicine and genetics, especially genetic engineering and eugenics, have grown significantly in recent decades. These advances have led to prevention of abnormalities and treatment of diseases. However, it seems the use of genetic engineering and eugenics and the possibility of irresponsible and profitable use of these technologies it's worrying. Hence, ...
متن کاملمروری بر یوژنیک و سیر تحولی آن
Eugenics or the science of breeding humans is a movement based on biological concepts that advocate policies for improvement of the human population genetics. It has also served as a determinant factor and reference in many social disciplines including law and punishment during certain periods in history. In fact, based on eugenic policies, which were affirmed by biologists, health experts and ...
متن کاملHow did East German genetics avoid Lysenkoism?
Lysenkoism gained favour in the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s, replacing mendelian genetics. Opponents of Lysenko were dismissed from their jobs, imprisoned and, not infrequently, died. After World War II in some of the East European Soviet satellite states, Lysenkoism became the official genetics supported by the communist authorities, and thus, genetics and biology were set back man...
متن کاملCharles Benedict Davenport (1866-1944)
Charles Benedict Davenport [5] was an early twentieth-century experimental zoologist. Davenport founded both the Station for Experimental Evolution and the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor in New York. Though he was a accomplished as a statistician and as a scientist, Davenport?s also has a legacy as the scientific leader of the eugenics movement [6] in the US. Eugenics, an attempt ...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
- Historical studies in the natural sciences
دوره 39 3 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2009