PLoS One only ignores the potential impact of an article when considering merit. All other peer-review processes apply. Also, as most slashdot readers would agree, "open access" makes things better not worse!

I think the spirit of these advertisements is that hiring international students is not illegal. They're not saying hiring American students is bad. Theodp, I think, has completely misrepresented this effort

there are a few other examples of one gene showing major significance in sub-population isolation or incipient species. All evidence for the one-gene-change mechanism has been for pigmentation.
For example: MICE Steiner, C.C., J.N. Weber and H.E. Hoekstra. 2007. Adaptive variation in beach mice caused by two interacting pigmentation genes. PLoS Biology. 5(9): 1880-1889. PLANT Streisfeld MA, Rausher MD. Altered trans-regulatory control of gene expression in multiple anthocyanin genes contributes to adaptive flower color evolution in Mimulus aurantiacus. Mol Biol Evol. 2009 Feb;26(2):433-44. Epub 2008 Nov 24 What is MUCH more interesting is those traits that involve multiple genes (ie, most traits). We still have no idea how something complicated like behavior or host preference changes genetically to produce young species. This American Naturalist paper is interesting but not ground breaking. Also, birds are pretty.