Monday, July 19, 2010

Scientific Ethics and the Myth of Stalin's Ape-Man Superwarriors

The first installment of the #PDEx tour can be found at Archy:

Why the Soviets would fund a human-chimp hybridization program in the first place and what can be learned from this sordid tale of ethical misconduct is an important topic and fascinating in its own right. Il'ya Ivanov represents a scientist, widely respected in his field, whose dedication to find out if something could be done blinded him to ask whether it should be done. It also reminds us of the role that politics can play in the development of scientific research even if the scientists directly involved are not political themselves.

Read the rest of the post here and stay tuned for next Monday's installment at Neuron Culture.

Rossiianov, K. (2003). Beyond Species: Il’ya Ivanov and His Experiments on Cross-Breeding Humans with Anthropoid Apes Science in Context, 15 (02) DOI: 10.1017/S0269889702000455