Good Friday Laugh

Sacado de esta reseña de un libro de divulgación publicado en 2001:

"Finally, although the science is generally accurate, Palumbi's discussion is occasionally confusing or incorrect. For example, he repeats as truth the common belief that artificial selection has made domestic turkeys so dim-witted that during storms they look up at the rain, forget to look down, and drown. This is, in fact, an agro-urban myth that has been branded an "unfounded turkey rumor" by Turkey Call, the official organ of the National Wild Turkey Federation. (Turkeys have, however, suffered greatly from domestication. Responding to human fondness for breast meat, farmers have bred birds too buxom to bonk, and new turkeys must be produced by artificial insemination.)"

(Jerry Coyne, The case of the missing carpaccio, Nature book review 2001)

Si yo pudiera escribir (y pensar!) como él...

A no confundirse

"The view generally entertained by naturalists is that species, when intercrossed, have been specially endowed with the quality of sterility, in order to prevent the confusion of all organic forms."

Darwin, On the Origin of Species, 1859.

*Debo aclarar (para que no se malinterprete), que como bien Darwin a lo largo del capítulo trata de desarrollar, la esterilidad o inviabilidad de los híbridos no es consecuencia de selección natural como creían los naturalistas en ese momento, sino más bien un producto secundario de la divergencia de las especies.