Machines Like Us

By meticulously categorizing life, maybe there's a chance we can save some species from extinction. That's perhaps the source of the excitement that erupted online when a team of leading biologists and software engineers announced the Encyclopedia of Life project in early May. The scientists plan to create an online catalog of the genome, geographic distribution, phylogenetic position, habitat, and ecological relationships of all 1.8 million known species on the planet. To do it, they'll use the latest technologies and scientific methods -- but they'll also use Carl Linnaeus' 272-year-old taxonomy system.

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