"Resurrected" Flagella Were Just Unplugged

A recent paper in Science carries the clickbait title "Evolutionary resurrection of flagellar motility via rewiring of the nitrogen regulation system." I can't blame scientists in these days of comparatively low funding for trying to attract attention to their work. But the public will eventually grow jaded if misled readers keep finding jazzy labels stuck to picayune results.

A related cheerleading story in The Scientist says that the workers didn't set out to investigate flagellar evolution...