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Every Species on Earth
nickynicky9doors writes: "National Geographic News relates that scientists to date have identified less than 2 million distinct species with from 10 million to more than 100 million still undiscovered. Likening this dearth of information to doing chemistry knowing only one third of the periodic table, biologist Terry Gosliner is involved in the All Species Foundation. The foundation is attempting to discover, identify and classify every living species and place the catalogue online over the next 25 years. It is hoped new technology and new recruits to the field of taxonomy will make the timetable viable."
Oh, they won't need any new recruits. 25 years would be plenty of time for us to get the number of undiscovered species down to managable levels.
Many species are very similar. How different is a dog from a coyote? How about an alligator from a crocodile? They are different species, but they're similar enough that the unique information provided by each one is very low.
Elements are far more unique to each other than species, so the scale isn't as linear as '1/50th of the periodic table.'
In any case, the idea was sound, the details are unimporant and not worth splitting hairs about.
"Derp de derp."