This article discusses the idea of having a website that provides information on all living organisms. Attributed to the Harvard biologist, E. O. Wilson, the project—Encyclopedia of Life—seeks to provide every possible information on all organisms. Information about geographical location, taxonomic information and all other known information about the organisms will be provided on the website.

According to the author, there have been several talks about collaboration between scientists in the field of biology and financiers to assist in making this idea a reality. So far, some scientists have joined the team of persons working on the Encyclopedia of Life, and over $12 million has been generated to start the project. The target group of this project is not only scientists, but also students, poets and other people who may be interested in the information on the website.

The project will begin with a demo site with fish as the starting organisms. The engineers of the website envisage an interactive demo that allows for user-feedback. To start the project, already-existing information on the organisms will be obtained from trusted databases. This information will be uploaded directly to the Encyclopedia of Life website. With time, the pioneers of this website envisage the possibility of having all work on living organisms being available to visitors of the site—a situation similar to the current Google search where a Boolean search brings up search results in a short time period.

The developers of this website are aware of certain challenges in their quest for putting up the site. The challenges include the large numbers of living organisms on the earth and the willingness of other scientists to share information. However, the proposers of the Encyclopedia of Life website continue to work and encourage other scientists to embrace this idea of a website that provides information on all living organisms. The proposers have already started working with certain museums and universities to commence work on this website. Due to the large estimated number of living organisms—about 3.6million, the proposers of this website admit that it is impossible to input all data into the website just as yet. What they expect is that the idea of a website that provides information on all living organisms will be accepted by all and pursued in the years ahead.

The many benefits of having such a website include reduced time spent by people doing research on organisms and fun purposes.

My Response:

I think this is a laudable initiative, and I am in support of it. The benefits of such a website are enormous especially for researchers. This website will also, possibly, solve the problem of the inconsistencies with classification of living organisms, and provide a standardized system.

In spite of the benefits that this project promises, I also think that it is impossible to have all organisms in this database due to the rapid changes that mutations bring about in organisms and also due to the fact that there are many organisms on earth.

One lesson I have learned from this project is the importance of collaboration among members of the scientific community. As a young scientist growing up, I am encouraged to see the older generation of scientists collaborate, and I am challenged to build networks and also develop the team spirit in order to make significant contributions to the community of scientists.

Description of website:

The Encyclopedia of Life website provides images, descriptions, references, literature reviews and classifications of the organisms on the website.

The organism I selected was the hornwort, a type of moss. The hornwort is a plant in the Phylum Bryophyta and Class Andreaeopsida. Hornworts show an alternation of generations in their life cycles. The sporophyte generation is diploid and non-photosynthetic (adult sporophyte) while the gametophyte comprises male and female photosynthetic haploid gametes. The gametophyte anchors the plant in the soil with root-like multicellular structures called rhizoids. The “leaves” of hornworts are unicellular.

In the life cycle of hornworts, the male and female gametes produce the antherozoids and archegonia respectively which fertilize to form the spores. These spores later grow to become the protonema and then the sporophyte generation. The sporophyte depends on the gametophyte for survival because the sporophyte is non-photosynthetic, thus the gametophyte is the more prominent generation.

References
Milius, S. (2008, February 2). BIOLOGICAL MOON SHOT. Science News, 173(5), 72-73.
Retrieved January 31, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.
Retrieved January 31, 2009 from http://eol.org/pages/3768


Credit: Arden Darko-Boateng [ardendarkoboateng@yahoo.com]