Part III

Allow me to make the case for FACUL by using a specific example of LabLit with a particularly prominent extrinsic reference.
Our example is all the more interesting as its extrinsic references extend to contemporary scientific, social, political and economic discourses.
In addition, it encompasses the history of science and the social and political consequences of scientific errors.
As a result, the source is of equal interest to subject teachers of Biology, History, Politics and Ethics.
During my presentation, I will point to various empty spots that will give you the chance to formulate tasks for a FACUL classroom application of this source.

38-year-old Benedict Lambert, a celebrated geneticist and affected by achondroplasia, obtains a job at the genetics laboratory of the Royal Institute in London. 
In a strange twist of fate, Lambert happens to be “Gregor Mendel’s great-great-great nephew.” (17)
By coincidence, he meets Jean Miller (née Piercey), whom he had already fallen in love with as a teenager when frequenting the local library where Jean worked as an assistant librarian. 
Ben, who spends his days at the Institute in “search for the gene that caused me” (99), that is the gene responsible for his dwarfism, starts an affair with Jean who becomes pregnant as a result and has an abortion for fear of the baby suffering from achondroplasia too. 
Jean is the victim of domestic violence by her husband, Hugo Miller. 
Jean has unsuccessfully tried to become pregnant and so she and Hugo opt for in vitro fertilization which Jean knows is doomed to fail due to her husband’s infertility. 
Hence, she turns to Ben to act as sperm donor.
In order to make sure that the baby will not be affected by achondroplasia, a PGA test for the dwarfism gene that Lambert has meanwhile discovered will be conducted. 
Ben secretly replaces Millers’s inactive sperm for a sample of his own previously tested semen. 

The procedure successfully results in Jean’s pregnancy. 
Due to postnatal complications, however, she becomes comatose and then decides to reveal the baby’s true genetic identity, which has dire consequences…
Plot and subplot are stapled together by several thematic and historical analogies. 
Firstly, Lambert’s great-great uncle, the Bohemian monk Gregor Mendel – just as Ben – enquires into the reasons for dwarfism, albeit in peas, not in people. 
Secondly, both fall in love. 
Throughout the novel, the narrator-protagonist Ben links the events of the action proper to the life and work of Gregor Mendel. 
Thus, apart from London, the second major setting of the novel is Brno, formerly part of the Sudentenland, today located in the Czech Republic. 
Ben, who calls himself “didactic” several times throughout the novel, provides large expository passages on Mendel’s experiments with peas, the common thematic denominators being Mendel’s search for the reasons of dwarfism and his falling in love with Miss Rotwang, thus forming an analogy to Ben’s affair with Jean. 
The former though, necessarily had to remain unfulfilled and unrequited due to the fact that Mendel was a Catholic clergyman. 
It is the choice of historical settings, however, that turns Mawer’s novel into a phenomenon sui generis. While the isochronic action takes place in twentieth-century London, the narrator protagonist takes the reader on an historical tour d’horizon rendering the life and work of Gregor Mendel in the nineteenth century and chronicling the scientific and political impact that his discovery of the laws of heredity have exercised up to the second half of the twentieth century and beyond. 

The chapter headings are based on concepts of genetics such as “Mutation” [“Selection”, “Recessive”, “Dominant, “Recombination”, “Expression”] which simultaneously capture the events of the plot. 

In addition, printed figures illustrate the mechanisms of genetics (pp. 20, 24, 134, 231) including pseudo-facsimiles of Mendel’s handwritten notes on the laws of heredity (203 f.). 

Most interesting in a FACUL setting are the discursive passages which embed the laws of genetics in a narrative context laden with metaphors. To cite but one example: A chapter features a narratively embedded (and therefore partly fictionalized) version of Gregor Mendel’s first lecture on the laws of heredity based on his experiments on garden peas (200 ff.), 
followed – in a mirror-inverted fashion – by Benedict Lambert’s lecture on the genetic foundations of achondroplasia (205 ff.).
It is this and various other issues of current genetics that the narrative leaves unexhausted thus providing springboards for students to fill the gaps in the scientific discourse. 
An interesting example is the technique of genetic sequencing conducted by Lambert to check whether embryos are carriers of achondroplasia.

Beyond the acquisition of specific scientific knowledge, the novel provides many springboards to acquire Science Literacy in general. 
This includes knowledge of good scientific practice and awareness of scientific misconceptions, science errors and, worse even, scientific fraud. 
An example of scientific misconceptions that the text touches upon is the nature versus nurture debate on the heritability of intelligence. 

Lambert provides an answer that does, however, leave various empty spots vacant and, therefore, provides opportunities to initiate scientific learning.

The novel provides a shocking example of science fraud and the dangerous blend between fraudulent science political ideology.
The scientific struggle between Trofim Lysenko and Nikolai Vavilov was a pivotal conflict in Soviet biology that had far-reaching consequences for science and agriculture in the USSR.
Nikolai Vavilov was a renowned geneticist and botanist who made significant contributions to the field of plant breeding and genetics[2]. He traveled extensively to collect plant specimens and studied genetic inheritance in crops, aiming to develop varieties that could thrive in Russia’s harsh climate[3]. Vavilov’s work was based on established genetic principles and required careful, time-consuming research.
In contrast, Trofim Lysenko emerged as a controversial figure who rejected classical genetics in favor of his own theories[1]. Lysenko promoted the idea that acquired characteristics could be inherited, a concept that aligned with Marxist ideology and promised rapid agricultural improvements[5]. Despite lacking scientific rigor, Lysenko’s ideas gained political support, particularly from Joseph Stalin[3].
The conflict between Lysenko and Vavilov intensified as Lysenko’s influence grew. While Vavilov insisted on adhering to scientific principles, Lysenko’s politically expedient theories gained favor[3]. This led to a dangerous shift in Soviet science, where political ideology began to override scientific evidence[1].

Citations:
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8664584/
[2] https://guides.library.cornell.edu/rarerus/vavilov
[3] https://clas.ucdenver.edu/nhdc/sites/default/files/attached-files/entry_443.pdf
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism
[5] https://www.nature.com/articles/454577a
[6] https://icarusfilms.com/if-sci
[7] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/trofim-lysenko-soviet-union-russia/548786/

The struggle culminated in 1940 when Vavilov was arrested for opposing Lysenko’s theories[2]. Tragically, Vavilov died in prison in 1943, while Lysenko’s influence continued to dominate Soviet biology[1]. This period, known as Lysenkoism, had devastating effects on Soviet agriculture and scientific progress[4].
The conflict between Lysenko and Vavilov serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of allowing political ideology to interfere with scientific inquiry and the importance of defending scientific integrity in the face of political pressure.

The difference between old eugenics and new eugenics forms a leitmotif of the novel.
Old eugenics here refers to the state-run eugenics programs conducted across the western world.
As a strange coincidence, the leading figures of old eugenics all listened to the name of Fisher.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, organizations were founded and laws passed to rid western societies of what was deemed unsocial elements and allegedly feeble minded individuals.
The “old eugenics” was run by “those who have turned genetics into a creed” (232).

Science was applied as an instrument of social engineering.

Here are some examples:
Gesellschaft für Rassenhygiene (1923)
Eugenics Education Society (1907)/Eugenics Society (1926)
American Eugenics Society (1923)
US Immigration Act (1924)
US Sterilization Laws
This trend culminated in its most cruel aberration in Nazi Germany with the German Sterilization Law (1933)
Erbgesundheitsgerichte
Erbämter
Erbkartei
Erbklinik
Erbkrankheit
The novel chronicles a science-based dystopia by looking into the historical rear-view mirror, a eugenics nightmare come true.

So, what is the essence of  “the new eugenics” as opposed to old eugenics?
It basically means scientific research based on supply and demand.
Benedict Lambert has to learn that his own condition is much too infrequent to warrant research funds in a world where market demand rules scientific research.
Universities’ genetics departments and pharmaceutical companies join hands in public private partnership.
The big drawback: research will only be funded if its findings can be turned into a marketable product such as genetic screening or gene therapy.
The following passages from the novel provide suitable source material for learning science, and its moral implications, yet also also provide a little tutorial of economics 101.

Throughout the novel, genetic research is portrayed as a quasi religious activity as you can see from the following quotations. 
An important lesson our students can take away from creatively engaging with the text is the awareness, that science might, after all not be almighty.
But that it can push mankind onto a slippery slope to hubris.