Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The Encyclopedia of Life, No Bookshelf Required - New York Times

And imagine it free, and on the web -- see the full article for details

Imagine the Book of All Species: a single volume made up of one-page descriptions of every species known to science. On one page is the blue-footed booby. On another, the Douglas fir. Another, the oyster mushroom. If you owned the Book of All Species, you would need quite a bookshelf to hold it. Just to cover the 1.8 million known species, the book would have to be more than 300 feet long. And you’d have to be ready to expand the bookshelf strikingly, because scientists estimate there are 10 times more species waiting to be discovered.

The Encyclopedia of Life, No Bookshelf Required - New York Times

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