“For more than 250 years, scientists have cataloged life, and our traditional catalogues have become unwieldy,The Encyclopedia of Life will provide the citizens of the world a ‘macroscope’ of almost unimaginable power to find and create understanding of biodiversity across the globe. It will enable us to map and discover things so numerous or vast they overwhelm our normal vision.” -Ralph E. Gomory, President of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Scientists began creating individual web pages for species in the 1990s. However, Internet technology needed to mature to allow fast and efficient creation of a comprehensive Encyclopedia. While specific Encyclopedia of Life efforts, including the scanning of key research publications and data, have been underway since January 2006 (Eol Press release May 9, 2007), only in the past year has the global community been catalyzed into action.
The butterfly if you will, that beat its wings and created the storm of activity surrounding the creation of the Encyclopedia of Life in the past year, is no less than an entomologist, one of the greatest scientists of our time and founder of the field of sociobiology, Edward Osborne Wilson (please, feel free to imagine 78 year old Wilson with antennae and great big wings, also, here is an interview of him by Bill Moyers, and his biodiversity website).
In March of 2007 Wilson was invited to make a “wish” at the annual TED conference convened in Monterey, California. Namely he was given the opportunity to address one of the few gatherings of people on the planet, who, through a combination of social, political and financial endowments, might actually be able to make world changing wishes a reality. It was incredible gift, and Wilson used it wisely. His wish was: “that we will work together to help create the key tool that we need to inspire preservation of Earth’s biodiversity: the Encyclopedia of Life,” he went on, “What excites me is that since I first put forward this idea, science has advanced, technology has moved forward. Today, the practicalities of making this encyclopedia real are within reach as never before.” His speech is a plea on behalf of his constituents, the insects and small creatures, for us to learn more about our biosphere. We know so little about nature, he says, that we’re still discovering tiny organisms indispensable to their ecosystems; yet we’re still steadily destroying nature.
Almost immediately, the components necessary for the Encyclopedia of Life began to fall into place. An immense amount of inspired work has been done over the past year to facilitate its initiation and there are some ambitious goals for the new year. This blog will function to publicize that work, for both people involved in the EOL and other related organizations as well as for anyone who is interested in how some of the most dynamic people, technologies and institutions are coming together to achieve a higher goal that will have an impact not only on our daily lives, but the future of our planet.
