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I am reminded of the story of bacteriophages. The West focused on antibiotics, but the Soviets focused on phage treatments.

Unfortunately, the senior phage scientists in the USSR somehow offended Stalin, so he had them all executed. We lost all that expertise and research, which would have been invaluable to mankind, particularly now that we are observing the limits and drawbacks of antibiotics.

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Stalin - the Greatest Friend of All Scientists! Politics is the one major thing that can mess up science in a big way.

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