It’s fun to read, but what it means I am not sure. A bunch of systematists have devised the Top 10 New Species list for 2008. It’s basically a way to promote the need for more conservation and systematics at the species level, and that can’t be a bad thing:
The list at the Institute for Species Exploration, centred at ASU, is here. However, I am particularly concerned at the choice of the coffee bean without caffeine. What’s next? Lauding a cacao bean without theobromine? This is just wrong, and they should have hidden the news altogether, lest it become the standard offering at coffee bars.
A caffeine-free coffee bean might be economically useful – for producing a never-caffeinated subsitute for decaffeinated coffee.
You just prove my point!