La recepción del Lysenkismo en México

Abstract

The history of Biology in Mexico shows us several cases, where the discussion on the need to choose the applied science at the expense of pure science, and where the relationships between science and ideology and science and power were analyzed. Today, these cases allow us to research, how these problems were solved in the past. In this paper we study the conceptions and controversies between two prominent Mexican scientists, Alfonso L. Herrera e Isaac Ochoterena (who played an important role during the first stages of Biology in Mexico), reviewing the vastness’ hypothesis previously used to study this topic. We focus to analyze the acceptance of Lysenkoism, which occurred during the first half of the 20th Century, with the purposes to study the problems, the arguments, the individuals involved and, above all, the effects of this reception on the development of biological research in Mexico, which repercussion went on almost until the end of the 60s at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.