鈥淚t gives you a double whammy. Because you have more genetic variability with a shorter generation time, you increase the rate of natural selection.鈥�
Shane Wright, a plant geneticist at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, on data showing that plants in the tropics evolve twice as quickly as those in temperate regions (The Guardian, London, 2 May)
鈥淚t could be one of the dumbest ideas of the year.鈥�
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Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington DC, on the US Senate鈥檚 plan to return $100 to every taxpayer to help deal with rising fuel prices (, 28 April)
鈥淭his is very concerning because this is a very poorly known species to science.鈥�
Bryan Stuart of the Field Museum in Chicago on the discovery that rare Paramesotriton laoensis salamanders are being sold online by Japanese pet stores for $170 each. The amphibians were only spotted in 1999, and are known to live in only two places in Laos (The New York Times, 25 April)
鈥淭his study provides an interesting lead in helping overcome the less desirable aspects of eating legumes 鈥� ie flatulence 鈥� whilst ensuring the nutritional benefits remain.鈥�
Nutrition expert Frankie Phillips on a Venezuelan method of fermenting beans with the bacterium Lactobacillus casei to cut their levels of wind-causing chemicals (BBC online, 25 April)
鈥淎ddiction to discovery 鈥� that鈥檚 the mark of a scientist, and the same I think is true of the artist.鈥�
Stanford University marine biologist Stephen Palumbi commenting on the multimedia show Ferocious Beauty: Genome, combining dance and science, which opened in San Francisco on 28 April (San Francisco Chronicle, 27 April)