The All Species Project is attempting to catalog and genetically sample every species on Earth, somethat that, amazingly, no one has ever done.
In the realm of physical measurement, evolutionary biology is far behind the rest of the natural sciences. Certain numbers are crucial to our ordinary understanding of the universe. What is the mean diameter of the earth? It is 12,742 kilometers (7,913 miles). How many stars are there in the Milky Way, an ordinary spiral galaxy? Approximately 1011, 100 billion. How many genes are there in a small virus? There are 10 (in X174 phage). What is the mass of an electron? It is 9.1 x 10-28 grams. And how many species of organisms are there on Earth? We don't know, not even to the nearest order of magnitude. For several centuries naturalists have relentlessly explored Earth's wilds to catalog the incredible variety of species (both living and extinct). Each year their collective work takes us a few small steps closer toward the implicit goal of recording all species on Earth.
(via Four Blogs on One Page)
