[just_curioussss]

A new study of chickens overturns the popular assumption that evolution is only visible over long time scales.

And yet the popular assumption remains the same, because it is the ignorance of the general public that perpetuates it and not the lack of research.

The solution: stop calling it popular assumption and start treating it as fact, journalists.

[PepeGomez]

I've read your comment three times and I still have no idea what it's supposed to say.

[sageabilly]

I think the commenter is saying that the general public thinks that evolution is an assumption instead of a fact and is wishing that journalists would start writing about evolution using language that reaffirms that it is a fact and not an assumption.

[dwc]

It's been known for a long time that much of evolution happens in spurts. When the environment is fairly stable evolution is a slow refinement toward local maxima. When the environment changes there's much more selection pressure and evolution happens much more quickly.

So, this one study doesn't tell us much new about the speed of evolution (because we already knew), and there's no reason to think this study will do any more to correct common misconceptions than previous science.

[PepeGomez]

Maybe that's what just_curioussss meant, but he wrote the opposite.

[selimthegrim]

I think he's assuming they're overturning a popular assumption with another piece of information that will just become another 'popular assumption' instead of explicitly stating "This new fact overturns the popular assumption..."