Forgot you can't send attachmentsto this group. The article is pretty long,
but these three paragraphs give the general flavour:
"Traditionally, species have been identified and categorized on the basis of
morphological differences, but parts of the academic community are becoming
increasingly concerned that "morphological taxonomy", pioneered by Linnaeus
in the 1750s, is no longer equipped to account for the extent of earth's
biodiversity, frequently estimated at between 10- and 15-million species.

"Let's face it, the morphological approach has had 250 years to advance the
task, and we're only 10% of the way towards the goalposts," Hebert told
BioMedNet News. His solution, to which many taxonomists are strongly
opposed, is to distinguish between species on the basis of similarities and
differences in their DNA.

A DNA-based taxonomy would vastly accelerate the final inventory of life,
says Hebert. Each novel organism would be described rapidly and simply by a
"barcode" - a number that corresponds to a sequence of its DNA. Hebert
envisages this "gene species" as a first, mandatory step towards describing
a real species. At a later stage, traditional taxonomists could make the
formal morphological description of the specimen, which would then become
associated with its DNA barcode, he suggests.

Although most taxonomists support a role for DNA in taxonomic research, some
have expressed strong concerns about any move that would make DNA sequencing
a mandatory step in the description of a new species".

The original is on

http://news.bmn.com/magazine/special...=SREP.030109-1 , but it might
not let you in.

Colin