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The Peril of Politicizing Science

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It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. support of the regime was not sufficiently enthusiastic. It was Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow not uncommon to get disciplined for being too quiet during the range of thought? In the end we shall make mandatory political assemblies (politinformation or komso- thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no molskoe sobranie) or for showing up late to mandatory mass- words in which to express it. celebrations (such as the May or November demonstrations). Once I got a notice for promoting an imperialistic agenda by −George Orwell, 1984 showing up in jeans for an informal school event. A friend’s grew up in a city that in its short history (barely over 150 dossier was permanently blemishedmaking him ineligible for years) had its name changed three times.2,3 Founded in I Ph.D. programsfor not fully participating in a trip required 1869 around a steel plant and several coal mines built by the of university students: an act of “voluntary” help to comrades Welsh industrialist John Hughes, the settlement was originally in collective farms (Figure 2). called Hughesovka (or Yuzovka). When the Bolsheviks came Science was not spared from this strict ideological control.6 to power in the 1917 Revolution, the new government of the Western influences were considered to be dangerous. Text- working class, the Soviets, set out to purge the country of books and scientific papers tirelessly emphasized the priority ideologically impure influences in the name of the proletariat and pre-eminence of Russian and Soviet science. Entire and the worldwide struggle of the suppressed masses. Cities disciplines were declared ideologically impure, reactionary, and geographical landmarks were renamed,4 statues were torn and hostile to the cause of working-class dominance and the down, books were burned, and many millions were jailed and World Revolution. Notable examples of “bourgeois pseudo- murdered.5 In due course, the commissars got to Yuzovka, and science” included genetics and cybernetics. Quantum mechan- the city was stripped of the name of its founder, a ics and general relativity were also criticized for insufficient representative of the hostile class of oppressors and a alignment with dialectic materialism. Westerner. In modern terms, Hughes was canceled. For a Most relevant to chemistry was the antiresonance campaign few months, the city was called Trotsk (after Leon Trotsky), 7 (1949−1951). The theory of resonating structures, which until Trotsky lost in the power struggle inside the party and brought Linus Pauling the Nobel prize in 1954, was deemed to was himself canceled (see Figure 1). In 1924 the city became be bourgeois pseudoscience. Scientists who attempted to the namesake of the new supreme leader of the Communist defend the merits of the theory and its utility for understanding Party (Stalin), and a few years later renamed to Stalino. My “ ” Downloaded via 172.58.121.2 on June 10, 2021 at 12:05:27 (UTC). ’ fi chemical structures were accused of cosmopolitism (Western mother s school certi cates have Stalino on them. Following sympathy) and servility to Western bourgeois science. Some Stalin’s death in 1953, the Communist party underwent some lost jobs. Two high-profile supporters of resonance theory, reckoning and admitted that several decades of terror and Syrkin and Dyatkina, were eventually forced to confess their many millions of murdered citizens were somewhat excessive. ideological sins and to publicly denounce resonance. Mean- Stalin was canceled: his body was removed from the

See https://pubs.acs.org/sharingguidelines for options on how to legitimately share published articles. while, other members of the community took this political Mausoleum at Red Square (where it had been displayed next 7,8 ’ purge as an opportunity to advance at the expense of others. to Lenin s); textbooks and encyclopedias were rewritten once As noted by many scholars,7,8 including Pauling himself,9 the again; and the cities, institutions, and landmarks bearing his grassroots antiresonance campaign was driven by people who name were promptly renamed. Stalino became Donetsk, after were “displeased with the alignment of forces in their science”.7 the river Severskii Donets. This is a recurring motif in all political campaigns within I came of age during a relatively mellow period of the Soviet science in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, and McCarthy’s rule, post-Stalin. Still, the ideology permeated all aspects of life, Americathose who are “on the right side” of the issue can and survival required strict adherence to the party line and jump a few rungs and take the place of those who were enthusiastic displays of ideologically proper behavior. Not canceled. By the time I studied quantum chemistry at Moscow joining a young communist organization (Komsomol) would be career suicidenonmembers were barred from higher education. Openly practicing religion could lead to more grim Received: May 7, 2021 consequences, up to imprisonment. So could reading the Accepted: May 10, 2021 wrong book (Orwell, Solzhenitsyn, etc.). Even a poetry book Published: June 10, 2021 that was not on the state-approved list could get one in trouble. Mere compliance was not sufficientthe ideology commit- tees were constantly on the lookout for individuals whose

© 2021 The Author. Published by American Chemical Society https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c01475 5371 J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2021, 12, 5371−5376 The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters pubs.acs.org/JPCL Viewpoint

State University, resonance theory had been rehabilitated. Yet, Schrödinger equation, Curie Law, etc.). The authors call for the history of the campaign and the injustices it entailed were vigilance in naming discoveries and assert that “basing the not discussed in the openthe Party did not welcome name with inclusive priorities may provide a path to a richer, conversations about its past mistakes. I remember hearing parts deeper, and more robust understanding of the science and its of the story, narrated under someone’s breath at a party after advancement.” Really? On what empirical grounds is this copious amounts of alcohol had loosened a tongue. based? History teaches us the opposite: the outcomes of the Fast forward to 2021another century. The Cold War is a merit-based science of liberal, pluralistic societies are vastly distant memory and the country shown on my birth certificate superior to those of the ideologically controlled science of the and school and university diplomas, the USSR, is no longer on USSR and other totalitarian regimes.17 The authors call for fi the map. But I nd myself experiencing its legacy some removing the names of people who “crossed the line” of moral thousands of miles to the west, as if I am living in an Orwellian or ethical standards. Examples16 include Fritz Haber, Peter twilight zone. I witness ever-increasing attempts to subject Debye, and William Shockley, but the list could have been science and education to ideological control and censorship. fi easily extended to include Stark (defended expulsion of Jews Just as in Soviet times, the censorship is being justi ed by the from German institutions),18 Heisenberg (led Germany’s greater good. Whereas in 1950, the greater good was advancing nuclear weapons program),19 and Schrödinger (had romantic the World Revolution (in the USSR; in the USA the greater 19 fi relationships with under-age girls). Indeed, learned societies good meant ghting Communism), in 2021 the greater good is are now devoting considerable effort to such renaming “Social Justice” (the capitalization is important: “Social Justice” campaignsamong the most-recent cancellations is the is a specific ideology, with goals that have little in common renaming of the Fisher Prize by the Evolution Society, despite with what lower-case “social justice” means in plain − well-argued opposition by 10 past presidents and vice- English).10 12 As in the USSR, the censorship is enthusiasti- presidents of the society.20 cally imposed also from the bottom, by members of the There is no doubt that many famous scientists had views or scientific community, whose motives vary from naive idealism engaged in behaviors that, by today’s standards, are not to cynical power-grabbing. 21 fi Just as during the time of the Great Terror,5,13 dangerous acceptable. Their scienti c legacies are often mixed; for conspiracies and plots against the World Revolution were seen example, Fritz Haber is both the father of modern chemical ’ warfare and the man whose development of nitrogen fixation is everywhere, from illustrations in children s books to hairstyles 22 21 and fashions; today we are told that racism, patriarchy, feeding the planet. Scientists are not saints. They are misogyny, and other reprehensible ideas are encoded in human beings born into places and times they did not choose. fi scientific terms, names of equations, and in plain English Just as their fellow human beings do, each nds his or her way words. We are told that in order to build a better world and to though the circumstances of their lives, such as totalitarian address societal inequalities, we need to purge our literature of regimes, world wars, and revolutions. Sometimes they made the names of people whose personal records are not up to the the right choices, sometimes they erred. Some paid dearly for 22 high standards of the self-anointed bearers of the new truth, their mistakes. Haber was an avid German patriot, to the the Elect.11 We are told that we need to rewrite our syllabi and extent that he actively developed chemical weapons in order to change the way we teach and speak.14,15 provide Germany with military advantage. Yet, his motherland As an example of political censorship and cancel culture, rejected him because he was a Jew. He was barely able to consider a recent viewpoint16 discussing the centuries-old escape Germany, and part of his extended family perished in tradition of attaching names to scientific concepts and the concentration camps. As eloquently stated by Stern in his discoveries (Archimede’s Principle, Newton’s Laws of Motion, essay,22 are we really so morally superior that we can “judge a

Figure 1. Soviet history was constantly revised to keep up with the current party line. Historic photographs were routinely airbrushed and textbooks rewritten to obliterate the canceled.1 Left: Lenin speaking in Moscow to Red Army soldiers in 1920, with Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev standing to his left side, on the steps to the right. Right: Same scene, with Trotsky and Kamenev airbrushed out, after they were canceled. Once the heroes of the Revolution, they had become traitors and enemies of the people. (Photograph May 5, 1920, by G. P. Goldshtein. Part of the David King Collection. Purchased from David King by Tate Archive 2016. Photo copyright Tate.)

5372 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c01475 J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2021, 12, 5371−5376 The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters pubs.acs.org/JPCL Viewpoint

Theauthorsoftheviewpoint16 acknowledge historic complexities and the fact that moral and ethical standards change with time. They backed off Debye’s cancellation, quoting the decisions of investigative committees that concluded that Debye did not cross the line. However, they demand that the “Shockley−Queisser limit” be renamed. They call for Shockley’s cancellation as punishment for his abhorrent views on issues far outside his domain of expertise, such as race, gender, and IQ. If, for the sake of argument, we divorce ourselves from the charged political content of Shockley’s publications on these topics, we can compare his minimal scholarly contribution in this domain to Pauling’s vitamin C debacle.26 Should we cancel Pauling for overstepping the domain of his competence and making medically dangerous claims? Which one is the greater misconductpublishing a paper with eugenic content or promoting vitamin C as a cure for cancer? Note that in the case of both Pauling and Shockley, 24 Figure 2. Fourth-year chemistry students from Moscow State the Mertonian principle of organized skepticism has already taken care of effectively separating the wheat from the chaff: University (the author is on the right) enjoying a short break in the ’ potato fields during mandatory farm labor, ca. 1987. The sticks were while Shockley s detailed balance paper (ref 11 in the used as aids for separating potatoes from the mud. viewpoint) is cited almost 7000 times, his paper on race and IQ (ref 12 in the viewpoint) has a grand total of 15 citations. life by one disastrous deformation, which in some ways Digging deeper into the Shockley case, many of his epitomized his and his country’s worst faults?” biographers attribute his well-documented antisocial traits Soviet history is full of examples of patriotic scientists who and behaviors (social withdrawal and paranoia) to a mental were imprisoned and murdered by the regime while disorder and describe him as a high-functioning autist. In his proclaiming their unconditional loyalty to the World book The Gene, Mukherjee uses Shockley to illustrate the 27 Revolutionone such tragic figure was Hans Hellmann, who ethical conundrums of gene editing, by pointing out that the fled Germany in 1933 (because of his Jewish wife) and, despite same combination of genes can be both “genius-enabling” and multiple warnings, came to Russia (because he believed in the “disease-enabling”. What if Shockley’s deplorable views were socialist ideals), only to be executed by the Soviet regime as an the result of his mental disorder? Should we cancel him enemy of the people in 1938.23 anyway? I think we should discuss his mixed legacy and learn Some famous scientists were brave dissidents, and some from his complicated story, in the same way we can learn from were conformists and opportunists. Should we judge their Fritz Haber’s and others’. These stories can teach us about the scientific contributions by their political standing, the extent to complexity of the world and of human minds, the importance which they collaborated with repressive regimes, or by how of tolerance and empathy. And we should leave the Shockley− wholesome their personal lives were? The authors of the Queisser limit (and other named discoveries and equations) viewpoint16 go as far as to suggest that we should use names of alone. scientific discoveries and institutions as a vehicle to promote The issue of science moralization and censorship is older ideologythat is, as a propaganda toolas was done by the than 20th century totalitarian regimes. For example, Giordano Soviet, Nazi, and Maoist regimes. Bruno was canceled (burned at the stake in 1600) because his The intersection of science, morality, and ideology has been cosmological views were considered to be a threat to the studied by many scholars and historians. History provides dominant ideology. The guardians of the truth, his prosecutors, ample evidence that totalitarian censorship of science is “had the desire to serve freedom and promote the common harmful to the progress and well-being of societies. Merton’s good”.28 A century later, Leeuwenhoek self-censored his norms of science prescribe a clear separation between science studies and reports for offensive content (observations of and morality.24 Particularly relevant is Merton’s principle of spermatozoa in semen).29,30 In 1911, Marie Curie was universality, which states that claims to truth are evaluated in ostracized for immoral behavioran affair with a married terms of universal or impersonal criteria, and not on the basis man (Langevin) following the tragic death of her husband of race, class, gender, religion, or nationality.24 Simply put, we Pierre Curie. The chair of the Nobel Prize committee, Svante should evaluate, reward, and acknowledge scientific contribu- Arrhenius, wrote to her advising that she not attend the official tions strictly on the basis of their intellectual merit and not on ceremony for her Nobel Prize in Chemistry in view of her the basis of personal traits of the scientists or a current political questionable moral standing. Curie replied that she would be agenda. present at the ceremony, becase “the prize has been given to Conversations about the history of science and the her for her discovery of polonium and radium” and that “there complexity of its social and ethical aspects can enrich our is no relation between her scientific work and the facts of her lives and should be a welcome addition to science curricula. private life”.31 Today we regard this attempt to cancel Curie on The history of science can teach us to appreciate the the grounds of her moral impurity as utterly absurd, yet we complexity of the world and humanity. It can also help us to continue to witness the intrusion of moral arguments into the navigate urgent contemporary issues.25 Censorship and scientific domain.31 cancellation will not make us smarter, will not lead to better Examples of past cancellations done in the name of science, and will not help the next generation of scientists to maintaining moral purity (as understood at the time) provide make better choices. a useful context for today’s struggle between free speech and

5373 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c01475 J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2021, 12, 5371−5376 The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters pubs.acs.org/JPCL Viewpoint cancel culture. In 1952, Alan Turing was canceled for being for offenses. If you are not sure when you should be gay. After he was convicted for “gross indecency” and offendedcheck out the list of microagressionsa quick subjected to chemical castration, he lost his consultancy job google search can deliver plenty of official documents from for the British intelligence agency, despite his vital contribu- serious institutions that, with a few exceptions, sound like a tions to the war effort, and was denied entry to the United sketch for the next Borat movie.38 If nothing fits the bill, you States. About the same time, the University of Minnesota can always find malice in the sounds of a foreign language. At revoked an offer from Michael McConnell for his intent to the University of Southern California, a professor was recently marry another man.32 McConnell sued, but lost, with the judge suspended because students claimed to have been offended by decrying same-sex marriage a “socially repugnant concept,” the sounds of Chinese words used to illustrate the concept of incompatible with holding a university position. filler words in a communications class.39,40 Today’s censorship does not stop at purging the scientific Why did I devote a considerable amount of my time to vocabulary of the names of scientists who “crossed the line” or writing this essay? After all, I am no fan of Shockley; his fail the ideological litmus tests of the Elect.11 In some eugenic views disgust me. Notwithstanding his monumental schools,33,34 physics classes no longer teach “Newton’s Laws”, contributions to one of the most pressing problems we face but “the three fundamental laws of physics”. Why was Newton harnessing solar energyI would not want to sit next to him at canceled? Because he was white, and the new ideology10,12,15 a dinner party. Yet, the term “Shockley−Queisser limit” elicits calls for “decentering whiteness” and “decolonizing” the no emotional response in me. Neither does “Stark effect”, curriculum. A comment in Nature35 calls for replacing the “Haber−Bosch process”,or“Debye units”. To most scientists, accepted technical term “quantum supremacy” by “quantum these are convenient labels, which remind us that the 21 advantage”. The authors regard the English word “supremacy” cathedrals of science are built by mere mortals, and not as “violent” and equate its usage with promoting racism and some deeply meaningful symbols of reverence. So why should 16 colonialism. They also warn us about “damage” inflicted by we not humor those who claim to feel differently and rename using such terms as “conquest”. I assume “divide-and-conquer” everything in sight? After all, renaming equations is even easier will have to go too. Remarkably, this Soviet-style ghost-chasing than renaming cities, buildings, or landmarks. gains traction. In partnership with their Diversity, Equity, and The answer is simple: our future is at stake. As a community, Inclusion taskforce, the Information and Technology Services we face an important choice. We can succumb to extreme left Department of the University of Michigan set out to purge the ideology and spend the rest of our lives ghost-chasing and fi language within the university and without (by imposing witch-hunting, rewriting history, politicizing science, rede ning elements of language, and turning STEM (science, technology, restrictions on university vendors) from such hurtful and racist 41−44 terms as “picnic”, “brown bag lunch”, “black-and-white engineering, and mathematics) education into a farce. Or  thinking”, “master password”, “dummy variable”, “disabled we can uphold a key principle of democratic society the free  system”, “grandfathered account”, “strawman argument”, and and uncensored exchange of ideas and continue our core “long time no see”.36 “The list is not exhaustive and will mission, the pursuit of truth, focusing attention on solving real, ” important problems of humankind. continue to grow , warns the memo. Indeed, new words are 17 canceled every dayI just learned that the word “normal” will The lessons of history are numerous and unambiguous. no longer be used on Dove soap packaging because “it makes Despite vast natural and human resources, the USSR lost the most people feel excluded”37 (emphasis mine; see Figure 3). Cold War, crumbled, and collapsed. Interestingly, even the Do words have life and power of their own? Can they really leaders of the most repressive regimes were able to understand, cause injury? Do they carry hidden messages? The ideology to some extent, the weakness of totalitarian science. For 5,13 ff claims so and encourages us all to be on the constant lookout example, in the midst of the Great Terror, Kapitsa and Io e were able to convince Stalin about the importance of physics to military and technological advantage, to the extent that he reversed some arrests; for example, Fock and Landau were set free (however, an estimated ∼10% of physicists perished during this time17). In the late forties, after nuclear physicists explained that without relativity theory there will be no nuclear bomb, Stalin rolled back the planned campaign against physics and instructed Beria to give physicists some space; this led to significant advances and accomplishments by Soviet scientists in several domains. However, neither Stalin nor the subsequent Soviet leaders were able to let go of the controls completely. Government control over science turned out to be a grand failure, and the attempts to patch the widening gap between the West and the East by espionage did not help.17 Today Russia is hopelessly behind the West, in both technology and quality of life. The book Totalitarian Science and Technology provides many more examples of such failed experiments.17 Today, STEM holds the key to solving problems far more 37 important than the nuclear arms race: reversing climate Figure 3. Headline of the New York Times article from 2021-03-13. fi The word “normal” will be removed from more than 200 beauty change, ghting global hunger and poverty, controlling products. “The changes were long overdue and ‘completely pandemics, and harnessing the power of new technologies necessary’..., said Ateh Jewel, a beauty journalist and an advisory (quantum computing, bioengineering, and renewable energy) board member of the British Beauty Council.”37 for the benefit of humanity.

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Normalizing ideological intrusion into science and abandon- on historically important neuroscience experiments which were ing Mertonian principles24 will cost us dearly. We cannot mostly conducted by white men.” afford it. (15) Antiracist pedagogy: YALE Poorvu Center for teaching and Anna I. Krylov orcid.org/0000-0001-6788-5016 learning, https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Antiracist-Pedagogy (ac- cessed 2021-03-21). Recommendations include “decentering White- ” “ ■ AUTHOR INFORMATION ness in the course content and creating assessments that enable ff ” Complete contact information is available at: students to demonstrate di erent knowledge and ways of knowing . Examples of good practices include “Yale Associate Professor of https://pubs.acs.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c01475 Computer Science ... includes discussions about the discriminatory Notes racial history of computer science and mathematics as a way to help students understand the politics and power of fields that are often Views expressed in this Viewpoint are those of the author and ” not necessarily the views of the ACS. thought of as being objective. (16) Ehrler, B.; Hutter, E. M.; Berry, J. J. The complicated morality The author declares no competing financial interest. of named inventions. ACS Energy Lett. 2021, 6, 565. (17) Josephson, P. R. Totalitarian Science and Technology; Humanity ■ REFERENCES Books: Amherst, NY, 2005. (1) Gessen, M. The photo book that captured how the Soviet regime (18) Stark, J. The attitude of the German government towards made the truth disappear. The New Yorker; 2018; https://www. science. Nature 1934, 133, 614. newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/the-photo-book-that-captured- (19) Jones, S. The Quantum Ten: A Story of Passion, Tragedy, how-the-soviet-regime-made-the-truth-disappear?fbclid= Ambition, and Science; Thomas Allen Publishers: Toronto, 2008. IwAR0vMHK7xyGcch7Hwn5RrS3A5zMEfh3FmoxKSbBe5VgpL (20) Evolution society renames Fisher Prize; some of us wrote a wO5E3HeKbMG118. letter in response. https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2021/04/02/ (2) Wikipedia article about the city of Donetsk. https://en. evolution-society-renames-fisher-prize-a-letter-some-of-us-wrote-in- wikipedia.org/wiki/Donetsk. response/ (Post on Jerry Coyne’s blog), 2021. (3) Hughesovka and the new Russia: Gwin Alf Williams in Donetsk. (21) Coffey, P. Cathedrals of Science: The Personalities and Rivalries Review by D. Moore; https://www.walesartsreview.org/hughesovka- That Made Modern Chemistry; Oxford University Press, Inc., 2008. and-the-new-russia-gwyn-alf-williams-in-donetsk; 2014. (22) Stern, F. Fritz Haber: Flawed greatness of person and country. (4) Bursa, G. R. F. Political Changes of Names of Soviet Towns. In − Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 50. The Slavonic and East European Review, 1985, vol. 63; pp 161 193. (23) Wikipedia article about Hans Hellmann. https://en.wikipedia. (5) Solzhenitsyn, A. I. The Gulag Archipelago; 1973. org/wiki/Hans_Hellmann. (6) Graham, L. R. Science, Philosophy, and Human Behavior in the (24) Wikipedia article about R. K. Merton. https://en.wikipedia. Soviet Union; Columbia University Press, 1991. org/wiki/Robert_K._Merton. Merton defined a set of ideals that he (7) Pechenkin, A. A. The 1949−1951 anti-resonance campaign in considered to be integral to the goals and methods of science and Soviet science. LLULL 1995, 18, 135. binding to scientists. The Mertonian norms of science, which are (8) Graham, L. R. A Soviet Marxist view of structural chemistry: The “ ” theory of resonance controversy. Isis 1964, 55, 20. often referred to by the acronym CUDOS , include the following: (i) fi (9) Pauling’s theory of resonance: A Soviet controversy. https:// Communism: the common ownership of scienti c discoveries, paulingblog.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/paulings-theory-of- according to which scientists give up intellectual property in exchange resonance-a-soviet-controversy. The Pauling blog, 2009. As Pauling for recognition; (ii) Universalism: according to which claims to truth wrote in his letter to Frank Aydelotte in 1951: “As to the Russian are evaluated in terms of universal or impersonal criteria, and not on scientists and the scientific controversies, I must say that I have great the basis of race, class, gender, religion, or nationality; (iii) difficulty in understanding what is happening. The most likely Disinterestedness: according to which scientists are rewarded for explanation seems to be that some of the Russian scientists are taking acting in ways that outwardly appear to be self-less; and (iv) advantage of the political situation to advance themselves at the Organized Skepticism: all ideas must be tested and are subject to expense of their colleagues. Others are then drawn into the rigorous, structured community scrutiny. controversy, and required by practical considerations to align (25) Harari, Y. N. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century; Random House: themselves with those who say that they are supporting the correct New York, 2018. Marxist position. I have read the Russian articles carefully, and I must (26) Wikipedia article about Linus Pauling. https://en.wikipedia. ” say that I cannot understand the arguments. org/wiki/Linus_Pauling.See“Medical research and vitamin C (10) Pluckrose, H.; Lindsay, J. A. Cynical Theories: How Activist advocacy” section.  Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity and (27) Mukherjee, S. The gene: An intimate history; Scribner: New Why This Harms Everybody; Pitchstone Publishing: Durham, NC, York, 2017. 2020. (28) Wikipedia article about Giordano Bruno. https://en.wikipedia. (11) McWhorter, J. The Elect: The threat to a progressive America org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno. In 2000, Cardinal Sodano referred to from anti-black anti-racists. Substack, 2021; https://johnmcwhorter. Bruno’s death as a “sad episode” but defended the Inquisitors who substack.com/p/the-elect-neoracists-posing-as-antiracists. “had the desire to serve freedom and promote the common good and (12) Zinsmeister, K. The compound fractures of identity politics. did everything possible to save his life”. City Journal, 2021. https://www.city-journal.org/fractures-of- (29) Kremer, J. The significance of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek for the identity-politics (13) Wikipedia article about the Great Terror. https://en.wikipedia. early development of andrology. Andrologia 1979, 11, 243. org/wiki/Great_Purge. (30) Poppick, L. The long, winding tale of sperm science. Smithsonian; 2017;https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science- (14) Diversity & inclusion syllabus statements at Brown university. fi https://www.brown.edu/sheridan/teaching-learning-resources/ nature/scientists- nally-unravel-mysteries-sperm-180963578. When inclusive-teaching/statements (accessed 2021-03-21). An example Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society of London about his DEI statement from a course syllabus: “In an ideal world, science discovery of spermatozoa in 1677, he preceded his report with the would be objective. However, much of science is subjective and is following: “If your Lordship should consider that these observations historically built on a small subset of privileged voices. I acknowledge may disgust or scandalise the learned, I earnestly beg your Lordship to that the readings for this course, including the course reader and BCP regard them as private and to publish or destroy them as your were authored by white men. Furthermore, the course often focuses Lordship sees fit.”

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(31) Gingras, Y. The moralisation of science is challenging its TI4NDMzLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItNjE1NzkiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJ autonomy. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story= lYWN0aW9uIn0.xBFk_7Ul9yZ_-W7rCgB7E68G_ 20190320145639758, 2019. H3q1B61wN3ifIhYIlM (32) Eckholm, E. The same-sex couple who got a marriage license in 1971. New York Times, 2015; https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/ 17/us/the-same-sex-couple-who-got-a-marriage-license-in-1971.html. (33) Weiss, B. The miseducation of America’s elites. City Journal, 2021. https://www.city-journal.org/the-miseducation-of-americas- elites (34) Somerville, E. Isaac Newton latest historical figure swept up in ’decolonisation’ drive. The Telegraph, 2021; https://www.telegraph. co.uk/news/2021/04/24/isaac-newton-latest-historical-figure-swept- decolonisation-drive. A draft of “inclusive curriculum development” at the Sheffield University (UK) states that Dirac, Laplace, Newton, and Leibniz “could be considered as benefiting from colonial era activity” and, therefore, should be removed from the engineering curriculum. “Decolonising the curriculum is an ongoing process which prompts us to incorporate historically marginalised or suppressed knowledge into all disciplines...so all our students have the opportunity to see themselves reflected in what they are being taught,” said a spokesman of the University. (35) Palacios-Berraquero, C.; Mueck, L.; Persaud, D. M. We will take ’quantum advantage’. Nature 2019, 576, 213. (36) Executive summary by “Words Matter” taskforce. https://drive. google.com/file/d/11a8cUt1SCfIxQRBZk_TnRYM5ltENL7LI/view, 2020. (37) Taylor, D. B. Maker of Dove soap will drop the word ’normal’ from beauty products; New York Times, 2021. https://www.nytimes. com/2021/03/09/business/unilever-normal-positive-beauty.html. (38) Examples of microagressions and recommendations on inclusive language from University of California, University of Colorado, University of Minnesota, and University of Michigan; retrieved from internet. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ 1n6jB4oTDnrPqqKNVAHpA_MNwbK3TBGg; Link to exhibits, 2020. (39) Soave, R. USC suspended a communications professor for saying a Chinese word that sounds like a racial slur; Reason, 2020; https://reason.com/2020/09/03/usc-greg-patton-chinese-word- offended-students. (40) Volokh, E. USC communications professor “on a short-term break” for giving Chinese word “neige” as example; The Volokh Conspiracy, Reason, 2020. https://reason.com/volokh/2020/09/03/ usc-communications-professor-on-a-short-term-break-for-giving- chinese-word-neige-as-example. (41) A pathway to equitable math instruction: Resources and guidance to support Black, LatinX, and Multilingual students to thrive in grades 6−8. https://equitablemath.org. From the website: “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction is an actionable toolkit designed to support equitable access to math standards for Black, Latinx, and multilingual students in grades 6−8. We invite school leaders, educators, and advocates to join us at these virtual opportunities to dive deeper into each of the toolkit strides.” The program, which is supported by numerous educational boards and foundations, including Los Angeles County Office of Education and Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, calls to “dismantle white supremacy” in the classroom, which manifests itself by “the focus is on getting the ‘right’ answer” and asking students “to show their work”. (42) McWhorter, J. Is it racist to expect black kids to do math for real? https://johnmcwhorter.substack.com/p/is-it-racist-to-expect- black-kids; It Bears Mentioning, 2021. (43) Klainerman, S. There is no such thing as “white” math. Common Sense with Bari Weiss; https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/ there-is-no-such-thing-as-white-math, 2021. (44) Deift, P.; Jitomirskaya, S.; Klainerman, S. America is flunking math. Persuasion, 2021. https://www.persuasion.community/p/why- america-is-fl unking-math-education?token= eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyNzY2MDE2NiwicG9zdF9pZCI6MzYzODMzNjEsI l8iOiJsVWgvMSIsImlhdCI6MTYyMTUyNDgzMywiZXhwIjoxNjIxN

5376 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c01475 J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2021, 12, 5371−5376