Renowned biologist E.O. Wilson has a new project: it鈥檚 called the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), and it aims to make all knowledge of the world鈥檚 1.8 million known species freely available online within just 10 years.
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Talking in the Ant Collection Room at Harvard University in Massachusetts, US, Wilson says the project, launched on 9 May, will 鈥渢ransform the very nature of biology鈥�. Scientific organisations have already pledged $50 million, including EOL鈥檚 host, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, US.
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The top of each encyclopedia entry will be ideal for gardeners, schoolchildren and amateur birdwatchers, for example, providing overviews of species鈥� appearance and habitats. Further links will feature in-depth genetic information and access virtually all of the scientific literature ever published on the creature.
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Species milestone
鈥淭his is the biggest thing since Linnaeus,鈥� says Graham Higley of the Natural History Museum in London, referring to Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus鈥檚 development of species taxonomy, nearly 250 years ago.
Higley, who chairs the Biodiversity Heritage Library, a consortium of natural history libraries and research institutions, aims to provide EOL with 25 million pages of scanned literature by the end of 2008. The BHL is currently acquiring documents published prior to 1923 鈥� and therefore not subject to copyright restrictions 鈥� and is pursuing more recent publications from scientific bodies and university presses.
It has also contacted larger, for-profit media groups, some of which publish thousands of journals.
鈥淚deally we鈥檇 like to have all of the articles and provide them all for free, but we realise that may not be possible,鈥� says Higley, acknowledging the possibility of links to external websites that charge a premium for access.
A number of online databases already provide detailed information about specific groups of plants and animals, such as ants or horticultural plants. EOL intends to incorporate the information into one easy-to-use website.
鈥淲e see it as a community enterprise that will make all of these specialised databases much more powerful, valuable and interoperable,鈥� says EOL chairman Jesse Ausubel. 鈥淪ay you want to study all species that are the colour blue, or all species that live in the state of Massachusetts. It鈥檚 very hard at the present time to mine data about such large numbers of organisms.鈥�
Information mashup
Unlike other online databases, EOL will rely on recent advances in aggregation or 鈥渕ashup鈥� software to quickly combine information from different sources. One group that stands to benefit is the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Last year the centre conducted a huge survey to determine how overfishing affects ocean ecosystems (see Glimmer of hope for 鈥榙oomed鈥� fish). However, the work was very lengthy and laborious to examine. 鈥淲ith the Encyclopedia of Life, you鈥檒l be able to zip through and cut across the information any way you want,鈥� says Jim Reichman, director of the centre. 鈥淭his wouldn鈥檛 be possible in an analogue, paper world.鈥�
Wilson takes me to his office and pulls out one of his ant tomes, Pheidole in the New World. The book, describing several hundred ant species, took him 25 years of part-time work to complete. A lot of time was spent waiting for museums around the world to ship him 鈥渢ype specimens鈥� 鈥� individual ants whose specific features define the species. He also spent hour upon hour producing detailed sketches.
Both time-consuming stages will disappear, thanks to EOL. Down the hall from Wilson鈥檚 office, researchers are using high-resolution cameras to capture detailed images showing every defining ridge, groove and hair on the ants鈥� bodies. These images will soon be available on the encyclopedia. With images like these at his disposal, Wilson reckons he could complete a work like Pheidole in just six months.
Closing the book and beaming from ear to ear he says, 鈥淚鈥檒l never do anything like this again.鈥�
