The Way of Science

Evolution: Lysenko to Creationism

As you have seen in the case of "Continental Drift", the heretic (Wegener) turned out to have been correct after all. The scientific community was wrong, but the public was uninvolved. Now we will turn to conflict between science and the non-science portion of the population. The two major cases (Lysenkoism and Creationism) require a knowledge of Evolution, so that topic must come first. We will present an outline of Evolution to accompany your readings, but we will not yet present evidence for Evolution. That evidence will come later, since the point of the Creationists is that there is no evidence for Evolution.

Reading Assignments

Required Reading:
1. (#10) Dawkins, R.1995. God's Utility Function. Scientific American 273(5): 80-85.
2. (#10a) Nesse, R.M. and Williams, G.C. 1998. Evolution and the Origins of Disease. Scientific American 279(5): 86-93. [Text-only version of this article is available on-line on EBSCOHOST.]
3. (Text) Hazen and Trefil, Science Matters. Chapter 17, Evolution, pp.243-259. If your background in biology is weak, or you need a review, read Chapters 15 (The Ladder of Life) and 16 (The Code of Life), first!
   
   Optional Readings (Lysenkoism):
4. Gardner, M. 1957. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. New York: Dover. [pp.140-151.]
5. Joravsky, D. 1986. The Lysenko Affair. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [The standard reference; the chapter on Evolutionary Principles is excellent.]