To the editor:

Your reader, Mr. McPheeters, (Oct. 1) states that evolution is not science because “unless we can observe evolution taking place, it is not science.” Well, we can observe evolution taking place, and make experiments, and mathematical predictions about the outcomes. This is done as a matter of course in laboratories and the field. We watch evolution happening around us with each new strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the hospitals, or insecticide-tolerant bug that appears in the fields.

I do not know exactly what Mr. McPheeters meant by us not being able to observe evolution in action, but there are evolutionary experiments that could be performed in a high school laboratory by any well-motivated (and well-informed) class. If direct observance is the criteria, large areas of evolutionary science will pass it.

Jorge Soberon,

Lawrence