Response from NATURE

[Geoff Read]

> if a retailer refused to supply customers with what they wanted, the retailer
> would go out of business. One reason that taxonomy could be in a bad way
> might therefore be a failure by taxonomists to understand matters of supply
> and demand. Users require a service which they feel taxonomists are not
> always particularly good at supplying.

So physicists (substitute any other science group) might be allowed to say
'sorry we haven't solved all  problems yet (no antigravity, no fusion power, no
time travel, whatever) - but give us more money now and we'll get there
eventually. But taxonomists aren't allowed to say 'sorry we haven't described
all the species out there yet, resolved all the relationships. There are rather a
lot of them you know - give us more money now, ... etc.'

Yeah right.


--
  Geoff Read <g.read at niwa.cri.nz>
  http://www.annelida.net/