Paul Kammerer, science victim or science fiction?

May 15th, 2007

A treasure from the archives - discover the true story of science, Nazis, suicide and toads in the thrilling tale of biologist Paul Kammerer.

Paul Kammerer was an Austrian biologist who studied Lamarckian inheritance in the 1920s. This is a pre-Darwin theory of evolution - that traits acquired during a lifetime are passed down to offspring (so playing sudoku will make your children smarter, and lifting weights will cause them to be born stronger). His most famous experiment involved breeding dry land-dwelling Midwife Toads in wet environments. The toads developed scaly black patches on their limbs called nuptial pads - an adaptation for gripping sexual partners in slippery wet conditions. Kammerer became a media sensation and left his university to lecture around the world. He drew a great deal of interest and controversy, and the world’s scientists held his specimens up to examination. If Kammerer’s experiments were correct, it would be possible to create races of super-animals - or even superhumans! But when they took a closer look at the pickled toads, what they found was… …India Ink. The ‘nuptial pads’ were no more than ink, injected under the skin of the toads. The results had been faked: the experiment was a fraud. Dr. G. K. Noble published his findings in the journal Nature, and Kammerer’s reputation was damaged beyond repair. Shortly after that, Kammerer committed suicide. In his suicide note, Kammerer claimed that he had no knowledge of the fraud, and suspected it was perpetrated by others to discredit him (Kammerer’s socialist beliefs put him at odds with the Nazis). To this day, the debate still rumbles over whether Kammerer was the victim of a cruel hoax, or in fact a self-promoting charlatan.

This was not the nail in the coffin of Lamarckian inheritancem, though. Kammerer’s work was held to high esteem in Moscow, and Lamarckism would surface again when bad scientist all-star Trofim Lysensko rose to prominence in Soviet Russia.

Entry Filed under: Bad Scientists

Permanent Link  |    |    |    |    |