Noah's Ark Redux

The beauty of our planet is unquestioned.

We're blessed with a diverse range of plant and animal life with more species being discovered and catelogued annually.

So, if you ever wanted to know "who's who in the zoo", as it were, the answer is as close as your browser:

ALTHOUGH the scientific portrait of life on Earth has grown exquisitely detailed over the last few decades, scientists have done a far poorer job of making their discoveries known and accessible to the public.

A new project led in part by US philanthropists and researchers aims to close that gap by creating a free internet resource to catalogue and describe every one of the planet's 1.8 million species.

If the $60.43 million biodiversity effort, launched this week, goes as hoped, the Encyclopedia of Life could emerge as an authoritative version of Wikipedia for biology fans.

What a marvellous idea!

-- Nora