Latest news with #Lysenko
Buzz Feed
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
20 Of The Worst, Biggest Screw-Ups Of Human History
Recently, a post from a now-deleted Reddit account on the popular Ask Reddit page caught my attention. The post asked, "What's been the biggest fuck-up in the history of humans?" and naturally, I had to share. Here are some of the most on-the-money answers: "Putting screens in the hands of toddlers." "The US government planting kudzu in the 1930s (as a make-work project) all over the southern US to combat erosion. The vine has swallowed up entire forests." "The Khwarazmian Empire, while never quite a world player, was still a considerably-sized nation of the ancient world. Never heard of it? There's a reason why..." "In 1218, a party of Mongolian emissaries was sent by Genghis Khan to open possible trade routes. The local governor, who was the uncle of the Khwarazmian Shah Muhammad II, had the party arrested. He apparently suspected it was a trap, though it appears to have been a genuine gesture of trade negotiation. We'll call this arrest 'Fuck-up #1.'Displaying an unusual amount of patience for a man of his reputation, Genghis then sent three ambassadors to try and diplomatically resolve the situation. Shah Muhammad II refused to punish his dear old uncle for his actions, and instead decided to execute at least one of the Mongolian ambassadors, or possibly all three. He sent the severed head of one ambassador back to Genghis Khan as a lovely little parting gift, which was 'Fuck-up #2.' "There was no 'Fuck-up #3,' for Genghis then decided that the 'fucking around' phase was over for the Khwarazmians, and the time of 'finding out' had begun." "On this note, one of the biggest policy fuck-ups is the Mongol policy of having to return back to Mongolia to elect a new khan after the death of the old one. This single policy outright halted many of their major campaigns and subsequently saved much of Europe and Asia from the all-conquering Mongol armies." "Microplastics are going to be the lead of this decade." "Adding lead to gasoline." "I mean, Japan attacking Pearl Harbor can be on this list too. It set off a series of fuck-ups." "When Noah allowed those two mosquitoes on the ark. I mean, seriously, dude???" "The invention and widespread use of plastics." "In terms of death attributable to a single individual? Lysenko and his agricultural reforms." "This is what happens when you appoint an unqualified political loyalist instead of a real expert. Lysenko's only real skill was sucking up to the party. RFK Jr. is this generation's Lysenko." "Prince Arthur Tudor dying shortly after his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and leaving Henry to replace him as heir to the English throne." "It will be AI." "Turning Hitler away from art school." "Despite the fact that I am using the internet, I'm going to make a case that the internet is our biggest fuck-up." "Not decarbonizing in time to prevent catastrophic global warming. We're heading full throttle for the cliff right now, with no brakes." "Plastic. Social media. Nuclear bombs." "Using PFAS in almost everything through the '90s. Thanks, now the world is contaminated and everyone is getting cancer." "The moment our species decided that we could turn healthcare into a for-profit business, I think, will turn out to be one of the most epically stupid and relentlessly human things we have ever collectively thought up." "When Benito Mussolini declared war on the Allies, over 40% of Italy's naval warships were in foreign ports. Upon declaring war, they were seized immediately by the foreign countries they resided in." "The last season of Game of Thrones." And a final thought to leave you with: "We probably don't know about it." So, what do you think of these? Were any big screw-ups left out? Let me know down in the comments! Or, if you have something to share but want to do so anonymously, you can check out this anonymous comment form. Who knows — your comment could be part of a future BuzzFeed article. Note: some comments have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Boston Globe
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
RFK Jr., America's Lysenko
Advertisement Lysenko had developed a theory that high-yield winter wheat could be planted in the spring, thus avoiding the dreaded 'black frost' that could wipe out crops. Though Lysenko's experiments were rejected by the Soviet scientific establishment as insufficient and poorly executed, the Soviet regime adopted his view in vain hope of avoiding a looming food shortage. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up A 1938 portrait of Soviet pseudoscientist Trofim Denisovich Lysenko. Wikimedia Commons Lysenko, thus hailed in the press as a hero and emboldened, used his 'discovery' as a way to refute scientists who had been trying to improve crops through genetics. In fact, he rejected genetics as an explanation for heredity. Soon, geneticists who questioned or challenged him were on the run — literally. Thousands lost their jobs or even Advertisement As the science writer Carl Zimmer recounted in Trofim Lysenko speaking at the Kremlin in 1935. Behind him, all the way to the right, is Joseph Stalin. Wikimedia Commons The pall Lysenko cast over Soviet science in general lasted beyond Stalin's death in reach of'Lysenkoism' extended from genetics and biology into Which brings us to Kennedy and his oversight of 11 federal agencies, including the Not only have Kennedy's wrongheaded scientific views not impeded his political gain, they may explain it. Just as Lysenko told Stalin what he wanted to hear, so Kennedy does with Trump and with those who espouse his unscientific beliefs Congress approved Kennedy's appointment to HHS despite his long record of lies and misinformation about vaccines and in defiance of broad opposition from the health and science communities. A Indeed, once in his new job, after an outbreak of measles in Texas, Advertisement Yet in Now consider President Trump's purge of federal agencies across the board. There was the initial firing of In response to the cuts at USAID, Johns Hopkins University, a leading research institution, So Trump, who kick-started the development of COVID vaccines with Operation Warp Advertisement How dangerous is this combination of funding cuts and Kennedy's role? 'It could take years for the system to recover,' Zimmer said recently. He was at the Harvard Science Center discussing his book ' It's not just that the cuts will be, Zimmer told me, 'incredibly disruptive to ongoing research.' They throw entire teams into disarray, upend years of planning, and could have effects that ripple on for a generation or more. 'A number of clinical trials have been halted. You have to remember these things take years to line up, and then all of a sudden if everything gets yanked and people are fired and so on, they're not going to just jump back into existence. So some of those [trials] could be lost.' Other cuts to scientific grants will break the pipeline of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who help sustain the American research infrastructure and ensure its continuity. That the cuts seem to have neither a basis in scientific goals nor a Advertisement
