"Encyclopedia of Life grows; Clues on Ageing, Pests"


The 'Encyclopedia of Life' (www.eol.org), a project likely to cost $100 million launched in 2007, says it wants to describe all the 1.8 million known species from apples to zebras within a decade.

'We're picking up speed,' James Edwards, EOL Executive Director based at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, said Sunday of the 170,000 entries with content in a common format vetted by experts. A year ago, it had 30,000 entries.

He said everyone from scientists to schoolchildren could use the EOL as a 'field guide' or contribute a photograph or an observation of an animal in an area where it was not found before, in some cases a sign of a changing climate."

Alister Doyle reports for Reuters August 24, 2009.

Source: Reuters, 08/25/2009