In article ,
Tim Tyler   wrote:
>Robert Karl Stonjek  wrote or quoted:
>
>> Scientists see new species born
>> By Dr David Whitehouse
>> BBC News Online science editor
>> 
>> Scientists at the University of Arizona may have witnessed the birth of a
>> new species for the first time.
>
>Um - what about:
>
>``Observed Instances of Speciation'' on
>
>http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-speciation.html
>
>...?  Or were't the scientists at the University of Arizona present to
>witness those? ;-)

Actually, the pattern described in the BBC News article is rather similar to
the patterns Theodosius Dobzhansky reported many decades ago in South
American species of Drosophila.  One wonders whether the "for the first
time" wording is used by Therese Markow's group.

Sadly, the popular science press has a built-in interest in dramatization
(as does the press in general, of course).  One can't imaging a report
starting, "Scientists have witnessed, for only the 12th time ever ..."
just as one can't imagine a report saying "President Bush gave a speech
in Ruritania today saying what he has been saying a lot lately.  This trip to
Ruritania is turning out to be pretty much uninteresting."

-- 
Joe Felsenstein         joe{at}removethispart.gs.washington.edu
 Department of Genome Sciences and Department of Biology,
 University of Washington, Box 357730, Seattle, WA 98195-7730 USA
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