Lysenkoism

Lysenkoism is like when a teacher tells you something that is not true, but you have to believe it anyway. In the old days, there was a man named Lysenko who was like a teacher for plants. He said that plants could change their genes by how they grew, and that this would help them adapt to their environment. But this was not true, and other scientists knew it.

However, people who were in charge at the time wanted Lysenko to be right, so they made everyone believe him. They said that if you didn’t believe Lysenko, then you were wrong and could be punished. This meant that many scientists who knew the truth were afraid to speak up, because they didn’t want to get in trouble.

So, for a long time, people believed Lysenko was right even though he wasn’t. This caused a lot of problems because plants were being grown in the wrong way, and people were forced to believe things that weren’t true. In the end, scientists who knew the truth were able to speak up and prove that Lysenko was wrong. But it took a long time, and it hurt a lot of people and plants in the meantime.