From Leah Burrows at Harvard SEAS:
Even Charles Darwin, the author of “The Origin of Species”, had a problem with species.
“I was much struck how entirely vague and arbitrary is the distinction between species and varieties,” Darwin wrote in his seminal 1859 work.
His followers have been exploiting the concept ever since, to confuse discussions about evolution with an all-knowing sneer. Indeed, nothing says “Darwin snob” like indifference to the mess that the entire concept of speciation is in.
In a paper published in Physics Review E, Tikhonov outlines a framework for rethinking the language of species classification. Classical models of biology start from the assumption that the differences between species are, for the most part, clearly defined, and that the cases where the differences aren’t as clear can be settled later.
He proposes a condensed matter physics approach.
“Instead of thinking about species, what if we imagined a microbial community as a free-for-all organism soup and add structure bit by bit – like this gene tends to associate with that gene,” said Tikhonov. “By doing that, we can ask questions about the dynamics of the system as a whole. We can ask, how does evolution act on the structure within a community, rather than on a species?”
More.
His approach may or may not work but mere discomfort with abject failure is a sign of hope just now.
See also: Are a few bad scientists threatening to topple taxonomy (biological species concept)?
Speciation: Do interspecies hybrids help drive evolution?
and
Nothing says “Darwin snob” like indifference to the mess that the entire concept of speciation is in