The World's Most Amazing Databases: The Encyclopedia of Life
Encyclopedia of Life Collage Wikimedia CommonsKeeping track of every organism on Earth Four years ago, the Smithsonian Institution, the Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Biodiversity Heritage Library joined together to create a comprehensive collection of data about every living thing on Earth. So far, the consortium's researchers have collected and vetted information on 40 percent of the planet's 1.9 million known species. Want observations describing the nocturnal behavior of the flying lemur? How about a map showing the distribution of the dark honey fungus, whose underground filament network spans thousands of acres and might make it the largest organism in the world? They're in there. The researchers gather information from hundreds of sources (including such databases as the Barcode of Life and Morphbank), work it into a consistent format, and organize it into individual species pages. Combining disparate data into...