One million species, and counting
Just weeks after adding its millionth Web page, the online biology clearinghouse the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) has received a major grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that will allow it to continue its mission of documenting every living plant and animal species on the globe. Launched in 2007 by Harvard University and five other institutions — the Smithsonian Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library — the EOL is intended as a worldwide Web portal for those seeking information about life on Earth, whether a high school student researching a homework assignment or a scholar conducting research. “In some cases, it can be difficult to determine if information on a particular species even exists,” said James Hanken, Agassiz Professor of Zoology and director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ). “Even if they know a scientific paper...