Have we been wise enough in the past? Lysenkoism and antinuclear movement

Why is the anti-nuclear movement so strong? How come that it exists at all? It is easy to ask these questions but it is difficult to give an answer. In the Western World not many people are familiar with the development and demise of a pseudo-scientific teaching, commonly called Lysenkoism, that flourished in the Soviet Union from about 1929 up to 1966. During this period Lysenkoism did an enormous harm to the development of Biological Sciences in the Soviet Union and even to the overall national economy. In 1967, Zhores A. Medvedev wrote a historical account of that sad period. The book The Riseand Fall of T. D. Lysenko (MEDV 67) was published two years later in the United States (Columbia University Press, 1969), and in 1993 in Moscow (MEDV 93). On page 244 (MEDV 67), when discussing impact of Lysenkoism on the Soviet society, science and economy, Medvedev wrote: 'No single answer can be given to explain how an obvious pseudo science could maintain a monopoly for so long, nor how clearly harmful and absurd recommendations could be adopted into the national economy.' In the Western industrialized world , in the second half of the twentieth century, a very strong antinuclear movement developed that has almost terminated any further developments and applications of nuclear power for the production of electricity. The similarity between two movements exists, and, in my view, it is very appropriate to modify the Medvedev's statement as follows: 'No single answer can be given to explain how an obvious pseudo science, the antinuclear movement, could maintain a monopoly for so long, nor how clearly harmful and absurd recommendations to stop developments of nuclear power could be adopted into national economies of many nations.' The object of this paper is to review briefly the rise and demise of Lysenkoism, a much better known history of antinuclear movement and finally to discuss similarities and differences between the two. (author)