Lamarkism might be seeing a revival. Not really! But something you might see as similar: epigenetics. Scientists are increasingly aware that gene expression is controlled by more than the genes themselves. Some of these control factors may be inheritable.
Where do we see a specific citation in the thread below my question or nearby? A lot of different phenomena have been labeled "epigenetic" in the last few years, without great consistency. I have quite a large number of reference works on genetics at hand in my office, and I was asking specifically which study the HN participant to whom I was replying had in mind.
But could this work with a non-Lamarkian explanation: say most people would smoke, some of them have a random mutation which makes them resistant to it, so they would be more likely to have children and care for them, so the trait would become more common in next generation. Isn't it just darwinian adaptation then?
I guess in older times even dying long after breeding could have had an effect: not being able to look after children => less chance of survival of children carrying same gene.
You are right that in modern society this effect is not so powerful probably, but if we take this reasoning forward, it could mean that diseases of old age will be more and more prevalent as there is no selection pressure for defense against them. Is this happening already?
Epigenetics is the modern incarnation of Lamarkism. While epigenetics doesn't affect the underlying genetic code, some forms of it modify the expression patterns of genes (look up heritability of methylation patterns) which often have an environmentally determined component.
Anyway I do believe a good story could come from there.