Sir

In his Commentary 'Science teaching must evolve' (Nature 453, 31–32; 2008), Andrew Moore criticizes the absence of the past four decades' efforts in gene-sequencing technology and bioinformatics from European secondary-school curricula. He notes that “phylogeny based on similarity of form is fundamentally unsound because of the adaptation and convergent evolution witnessed in nature”. There is self-evident truth in this, but molecular phylogenetics is also based on similarity of form, albeit DNA's. Many of the computer programs used to seek out molecular relationships among organisms are used to determine morphological relationships — thereby revealing those many instances of convergence.

Data are data, whether they be molecular or morphological. If students are short-changed when it comes to the teaching of evolution, it is in its history, which is highly relevant today.

See also Evolutionary theory: it's on the syllabus in Mexico