C.D. Darlington and the British and American reaction to Lysenko and the Soviet conception of science

The Anglo-American reaction to the Lysenko affair has been treated primarily either from the point of view of the political Right or Left, or as a consequence of post-WWII international relations. None of the accounts have considered the central role of the British cytogeneticist and evolutionist C.D. Darlington. This article considers Darlington's role, and illustrates how, through an analysis of his divergent reaction, it becomes possible to see the response to Lysenko as a reflection of internal scientific and political debates concerning the planning, funding, utility, and freedom of science in post-war Britain.