Encyclopedia of life March 5, 2008
Posted by roberta in : General , add a commentI was thrilled to read today that the much anticipated ‘Encyclopedia of Life‘ is now live, with a good assortment of articles populated with data, including photos, descriptions, and even video. This site aims to be a repository for detailed information on every living thing on the planet earth, curated by experts by editable by anyone, and is the vision of E.O. Wilson, winner of the TED Prize in 2007.
For a neat introduction to the scope of this project, check out the Australian Giant Cuttlefish entry. Note the images and video, as well as the detail slider. Set it to less detail if you’re browsing with young kids, more for highschool biology students. A great way to prevent information overload! (Lowering the detail seems to remove most of the more scholarly bits- complex references etc…)
I also like the way the classification section can be viewed by text, as an expandable indented list, or by graphic, both of which can be clicked to navigate the ‘web of life’.
Take a bit of time to explore this fascinating resource, and be awed by the diversity of life on our planet.