The wiki aspect is the ability for anyone to upload a (published) tree and map its tips to names in the taxonomy. Literally, anyone with a github id can contribute. However, I do concede your point - the skill to map names to tips and access to trees are not attributes your average Joe is likely to display.
It's more complicated than that. Opentree builds a taxonomy which is a 'consensus' from taxonomies from NCBI, SILVA, Index Fungorum, WoRMS, etc. This taxonomy is then used to scaffold the assembly of a phylogeny from the set of accepted trees. These trees (478 in the current synthesis) are selected from the ~3000 studies that have been contributed to the database. There are groups (for example spiders) where the coverage by available trees is rather sparse or absent. In these cases, the synthetic tree necessarily falls back on taxonomy, but that represents a failure of coverage, not the intent of the project.
I agree that the biggest benefit will be to scientists who have a relatively friendly, github backed, collection of published phylogenetic trees (thus, more like TREEBASE). The synthetic tree will help fill in the gaps where a tree is required that is not covered by any one existing phylogeny.
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) ruling addressed a request to name D. melanogaster as the type species for the genus. Under the rules of nomenclature, another species in the genus has naming priority. As long as the genus (currently more than 1400 species) remains intact there is no name change for melanogaster. However, the biologist who submitted the petition to protect the name D. melanogaster did so because a revision and splitting of Drosophila is long overdue (and is apparently interested in taking on the project). The ICZN did not make this decision lightly, it has been under review for a couple of years.
Arthropods are a lot more than spiders, including things like insects (most of which are non-venomous) and crustaceans (some of which many people consider tasty). I would have been happy to hear about 65 new Arachnids, but that's not what the post said.
I believe Grunt is Russian for Ground and will be a sample return mission from Phobos. The Planetary Society is flying something as well: a long term biological exposure project called Life. I think the idea is to see whether cells can survive long term exposure to the radiation environment of interplanetary space (as opposed to low earth orbit).
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The wiki aspect is the ability for anyone to upload a (published) tree and map its tips to names in the taxonomy. Literally, anyone with a github id can contribute. However, I do concede your point - the skill to map names to tips and access to trees are not attributes your average Joe is likely to display.
It's more complicated than that. Opentree builds a taxonomy which is a 'consensus' from taxonomies from NCBI, SILVA, Index Fungorum, WoRMS, etc. This taxonomy is then used to scaffold the assembly of a phylogeny from the set of accepted trees. These trees (478 in the current synthesis) are selected from the ~3000 studies that have been contributed to the database. There are groups (for example spiders) where the coverage by available trees is rather sparse or absent. In these cases, the synthetic tree necessarily falls back on taxonomy, but that represents a failure of coverage, not the intent of the project. I agree that the biggest benefit will be to scientists who have a relatively friendly, github backed, collection of published phylogenetic trees (thus, more like TREEBASE). The synthetic tree will help fill in the gaps where a tree is required that is not covered by any one existing phylogeny.
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) ruling addressed a request to name D. melanogaster as the type species for the genus. Under the rules of nomenclature, another species in the genus has naming priority. As long as the genus (currently more than 1400 species) remains intact there is no name change for melanogaster. However, the biologist who submitted the petition to protect the name D. melanogaster did so because a revision and splitting of Drosophila is long overdue (and is apparently interested in taking on the project). The ICZN did not make this decision lightly, it has been under review for a couple of years.
Arthropods are a lot more than spiders, including things like insects (most of which are non-venomous) and crustaceans (some of which many people consider tasty). I would have been happy to hear about 65 new Arachnids, but that's not what the post said.
You really need a source for the 20 Billion over 30 years figure. What does fields does it cover?
I believe Grunt is Russian for Ground and will be a sample return mission from Phobos. The Planetary Society is flying something as well: a long term biological exposure project called Life. I think the idea is to see whether cells can survive long term exposure to the radiation environment of interplanetary space (as opposed to low earth orbit).