Earth: The database to rival all others

  A huge undertaking is underway with millions of pages being scanned with millions to go. The earth will literally be digitized and organized into a single location. The project is called the Encyclopedia of Life, which will uniformly categorize and visualize over 1.8 million species.   With $12.5 million in funding the project will be a collaboration of scientific professionals in all fields. The project will consist of first scanning all print literature, which will be verified and added to the database. The bulk of the information will be gathered from the internet, which will also be verified before being added. The next part will consist of painstaking research in discovering new species. The database will include colorful still pictures and video.   After the milestone of mapping the human genome, it was only a matter of time before another monumental project started. The task of collecting and organizing all this information is expected to take 10 years. The project when completed will be open to the general public, and will be the single largest source of verified scientific data of life on earth.   Grants were provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The executive director of the project is Dr. James Edwards. For sample pages of the encyclopedia visit eol.org Source doc BBC

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