Can't help but be reminded the Soviet Science sucess of increase wheat yields.
Actually on a serious note, the Lysenko story is a bit misunderstood.
Western biology at the time was in full-on genetic inflexibility mode. Obviously growing wheat progressively further north wouldn't work, stupid Soviets ha ha!
Since then it has turned out that many organisms have different expressions due to genetic controls that are affected by the early environment. Growing wheat under cold conditions may select for the samples which have a better cold adaptation mechanism. No memory of previous cold environments is needed, just plain old natural selection. Wheat whose adaptation mechanisms fail to turn on and off the right genes don't get to reproduce.
Where it went wrong were Marxist theorists confusing this with dialectic materialism, as silly as the churches trying to apply Christian doctrine to science. But Lysenko himself wasn't being stupid.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
