Government-censored science ruined the USSR. Is the USA next? | by Ethan Siegel | Starts With A Bang! | Feb, 2025

With a flurry of threats to scientists, science funding, and health policy, the USA now faces a crisis reminiscent of Soviet-era Lysenkoism.

In 2016, an Italian virologist named Roberto Burioni was invited to appear on television alongside two celebrities: Red Ronnie (a DJ) and actress Eleonora Brigliadori. Near the end of the program, the host turned to Burioni for the first time. His response, now legendary, was simply, “The Earth is round, gasoline is flammable, and vaccines are safe and effective. All the rest are dangerous lies.” Similar lies aren’t just present in the mainstream today:

but those lies are potentially going to soon become the official policy position of the US Government.

That won’t change reality, however. Whenever you have a question about the physical world, there are a lot of different approaches available for…