What on earth? Database to list all named species

By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff | May 9, 2007

Spurred by fears that thousands of animals, plants, and microbes will disappear from the planet before scientists can properly study them, a consortium of world-famous research institutions and funding foundations today is launching an effort to compile an enormous, computer-based "Encyclopedia of Life" to catalog every species known or found.

"For biologists, this is equivalent to the moon shot or mapping the human genome, in terms of complexity and scope," said Gary Borisy, director of the Marine Biological Laboratory in . . ." click title