Transcript: Today we are going to be talking about some of the dumbest scientific theories that have been proposed and why they sucked. Starting off with plant communism which was theorised by a Russian scientist by the name of Lysenko, he lived in the USSR at the time which is where I'm guessing he got the inspiration for his theory. Lysenko rejected the idea of natural selection and Mendelian genetics in favour of his own agricultural techniques based on communist theory and the idea of vernalisation which is just conditioning. He believed that he could increase wheat seeds’ crop yield by subjecting them to conditioning by exposing them to high humidities and low temperatures. According to this theory if you put your balls in a vice then your children would have extreme resistance to pressure and would be superhumans. So it's not really surprising that his ideas never really took off, or is that just what they want you to think? “ Do not put your balls in a vice” He expanded on this theory stating that the concept of the gene is a bourgeois invention, that there were no clearly defined species, and that you can change your nature exclusively by conditioning your environment. He also refuted the idea of random mutation claiming it was the enemy of science. Lysenko's” Big Gene is brainwashing the youth just to sell more DNA testing kits”. Me: “What?”. Lysenko's theories were popular in the USSR and critics of the theory were seen as criticising the communist party by proxy so were disappeared by Stalin. The effects of this disastrous theory were that crop yields declined as a result and many blame Lysenko for extending the famines that plagued the USSR in turn needlessly killing millions of civilians. Name something more iconic than a communist idea and famines they go together like two peas in a pod except there are no peas because everyone is starving. Writers of the time stated that the effect Lysenko had on Russian biology was setting it back by 50 years. The next botched theory is that of spontaneous generation which is the opposite of spontaneous combustion, it was put forth by Aristotle, (Yea that Aristotle the same Greek scientist famous for creating the scientific method) that creatures can be created from inanimate objects such as how a maggot grows from rotting meat. Obviously, I'll cut Aristotle some slack because he was born about 2300 years ago so logically when you see rotting meat spawn maggots from nowhere you just assume they randomly came into being. The theory was further proven by an experiment in which you would put a sweaty t-shirt (it had to be sweaty for some reason) in a jar with wheat husks. Within a few days, the jar would have spontaneously generated some mice and people were like yea see that it's proof. The experiment was later debunked as the mice just wandered into the jar as mice do. In the case of the maggots and how they are created here's a short informational bit. Although not as bad as the communist plants the idea that 1 + 0 could ever be greater than 1 will always be dumb The Water fluoridation theory or should I say conspiracy theory caused a massive scare in the 1950s during McCarthyism where the belief was that the fluoridation in the water was responsible for a decrease in reading and writing levels amongst children in the US. If you look at reading levels in the US today maybe it wasn’t so much of a conspiracy after all. Nevertheless at the time It was even regarded as a greater threat to Americans than the atomic bomb as it could easily and discretely be added to the water lines and no one would be the wiser. The extent to which this was believed was quite widespread as in Florida fluoride introduction was rejected from thousands of communities due to these fears, which I mean yea it's Florida what did we expect. Towards the end of the 20th century, the theory was changed from decreasing intelligence to decreasing resistance to outside influence and allowing for people to be mind controlled. The fluoride causes calcification of the pineal gland which is where melatonin is secreted as well as regulating the sleep cycle. That last part is actually true btw and it's why it's banned in the EU. Nevertheless, our boys across the pond aren’t more easily influenced and aren’t prone to conspiracies so we are all fine. hopefully. Stoic Stick, Stoic, GradeAunderA, GradeA, Informational, Mockumentary, Animated videos, Animation, MSPaint, Just Casual, just casual, envelope laser rectangle, Casually Explained, stand up comedy, comedy, animated comedy, satire, how to, advice, funny, stand up, comedian, hilarious, humour, Sam O’Nella Academy, Sam Onella, OverSimplified, oversimplified, BlueJay, bluejay, Mostly True, Jay Foreman, TierZoo, tierzoo, The Mythology Guy Weird History, MedievalMadness, Today I Found Out, Voices of the Past, Simple History, History Buffs, Top Discovery, JCS, jcs inspired, Good Enough, good enough, Casual Lectures, Casual Lecture,