Cryptic designs on the peppered moth

• Wÿss Rudge, David ^[1]
  1. [1] Western Michigan University

     Western Michigan University

     City of Kalamazoo, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Revista de Biología Tropical, ISSN 0034-7744, Vol. 50, Nº. 1, 2002 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Volume 50 - Regular number 1 - March 2002; 1–7)
• Idioma: inglés
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Cryptic designs on the peppered moth
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • In a provocative recent book, JonathanWells (2000) decries what he discerns as a systematic pattern in how introductory biology textbooks “blatantly misrepresent” ten routinely cited examples offered as evidence for evolution. Each of these examples, according to Wells, is fraught with interpretive problems and, as such, textbooks that continue to use them should at the very least be accompanied by warning labels. The following essay critiques his reasoning with reference to one of these examples, the phenomenon of industrial melanism. After criticizing Wells’s specific argument, the essay draws several conclusions about the nature of science lost in his account.