Finding Every Species

Microsofts slave writes "A hugely ambitious project to find and name every species on Earth within the next 25 years has been launched by scientists. The internet and the development of DNA sequencing technology make the goal achievable, they say."

Comments

My own project...

[spazoid12]

...is to find and sample one of each of these tasty species within 20 years.

And...

[Noodleroni]

And start out by figuring out which species CmdrTaco, Hemos, and CowboyNeal are.

PETA would approve

[Anonymous Coward]

People for the Eating of Tasty Animals that is.

Hrm.

[IcebergSlim]

So they finally got too bored with trying to cure cancer?

Re:And Then

[Anonymous Coward]

Not a bad idea. But would dissecting them be a violation of the DMCA then? Reverse engineering and all...

I'm a bit worried

[long_john_stewart_mi]

I'm a bit worried about this idea. I thought the search was over the day they discovered Spam.

If they need a good head start ...

[Chiggy_Von_Richtoffe]

I could help them out, seeing as my room probably contains 300 or more here-to-unknown (or recently evolved) species alone (and i'm pretty sure i'm not the only slashdotter in this situation.

Proving a negative...

[jtdubs]

Wow, I'm glad scientists have finally found a way around that pesky problem of not being able to prove negatives.

Now we can finally prove that:

a) There does not exist a species that we haven't found.
b) God does not exist.

These scientists seem to be morons if the slashdot headline is accurate (that'll be the day). An ambitious undertaking would have been to catalog 10x as many species next year as most years, and to continue doing so until we think we have them all. An impossible undertaking is to show that we haven't missed any in the process.

Justin Dubs

Re:Not as easy as it sounds.

[InfiniteWisdom]

it's easy for two organisms to be nearly identical on the sequence level and still be non-mating.

You mean like me and that cute girl next door?

Re:Shouldn't be too hard...

[Waffle Iron]

You forgot to take into account the rate of speciation. About which we basically know nothing. Lots of theory and fossil evidence, but as to the rate of speciation occurring today, we know nothing.

That's right, there's need to worry about the possible extinction of tigers, elephants, orangutans or any other species. New species could be popping up to replace them even as we speak!

Just think of the menagerie of crazy, fantastic creatures that could wink into existence at any time. Maybe thinning out today's boring selection will accelerate the process. I was just thinking how cool it would be to have a purple pet flying unicorn; I might get one yet if one happens to materialize! Or maybe a dinosaur the size of a T. Rex, but with soft golden fur and a gentle disposition.

Re:Shouldn't be too hard...

[Anonymous Coward]

To use a really simple example, imagine a grassland populated by browsing mammals.

No problem, I'm right on it ;-)

b.

Re:Shouldn't be too hard...

[fucksl4shd0t]

In a lush environment, individuals with all sorts of different characteristics can be equally successful.

Thanks, dude. You've just explained to me why rock music has sucked so much since the early '90s.

Re:Every species in 2028?

[Idarubicin]

But what will we eat?

Oh.

Ew.

convergeance is a wonderful thing

[corvi42]

Well if species keep disappearing at a high rate, and researchers keep discovering new ones at a moderately slow rate - then eventually these two should converge at some point.

So it follows that we should kill off more species to help these scientists in their noble task. ( amazing what absurd things can be done with pure logic )