Wells on Moths: A Case Study In Misrepresentation

[Michael Majerus](http://www.gen.cam.ac.uk/Research/majerus.htm) has spent countless hours conducting research on the Peppered Moth (_Biston betularia_). He's observed them in the field, bred them in the lab, watched them get eaten by things, kept careful count of the things that he's seen, and, recently, [given a talk](http://www.gen.cam.ac.uk/Research/Majerus/Swedentalk220807.pdf) about his findings. Jonathan Wells has spent, to the best of my knowledge, absolutely no time doing any actual research on natural selection or moths, but that certainly didn't stop him from launching [a full-throated attack](http://www.discovery.org/a/4198) on Majerus.

In this attack, Wells manages to misrepresent a lot of things. This should come as no surprise to those of you who have followed [his work in the past](http://scienceblogs.com/authority/2006/09/the_politically_incorrect_guid.php), of course. Wells vendetta against all things evolutionary might be a [mission from God](http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Talks/Wells/DARWIN.htm), but his tactics are hardly heavenly. A Jonathan Wells essay that lies about something is hardly news, and it wouldn't ordinarily be something that I'd write about. In this case, though, I'm going to make an exception. I simply can't abide seeing good science and good scientists maligned by a two-bit hack with a defective moral compass.

[Read more (at The Questionable Authority, where comments may be left):](http://scienceblogs.com/authority/2007/08/wells_on_moths_a_case_study_in.php)