Amy Minsky
Sun
Scientists from around the globe are developing a massive online observatory of the Earth’s biodiversity.
The “comprehensive virtual observatory” will act as a field-guide for professional scientists and citizen scientists alike, according to Jim Edwards, executive director of the Encyclopedia of Life, that is creating an online database for every known species, based at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
The technology will be similar to the popular online mapping tool Google Earth. After entering a query, the user will be guided while “drilling down” to as specific of a species as they want — whether to a forest, a tree, a leaf, a bug on that leaf, or the DNA inside that bug.
It will also function the other way. If someone discovers an insect in their backyard they’ve never seen before, they can take a picture and upload it into a database, then compare it to bug species around the world, said Norman MacLeod, London’s Natural History Museum’s keeper of paleontology.
The developers are calling on the public for observational input for this project.
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