Canadian researchers have co-authored a biodiversity study on DNA “bar-coding” they say will pave the way for cataloguing the world's organisms and lead to the discovery of untold numbers of new species.
With this technology, the study authors envision the creation of a hand-held device that will allow the average person, within minutes, to identify any species of plant or animal life and access biological information about it.
“When we're finished codifying bar codes and creating this reference library for life, any person on the planet will be able to identify any organism,” said co-author Paul Hebert, director of the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario at the University of Guelph.
“Any person equipped with a bar-coder can walk through the forest and identify the life around them.”
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
William Wordsworth
4 comments:
Perhaps the information will include good recipes for the organism in question.
Beats collecting bird's eggs or netting butterflies, I suppose.
Each to their own. Some people's first thought on seeing a painting is to ask "how much is it worth?" Other people watch cricket matches in order to collect the stats.
May I please borrow someone's bar coder next weekend?
Just think of all the advert tie-ins that can be added to this scanner, in addition to the aforementioned recipe data. Hunters can be apprised of the best make & caliber of ammunition to take down the beast. Squeamish people who generally think nature is awful and ugly can learn which poisons work best to eradicate the pests in question. Poachers can get quotes directly from the black market, and can get a quick cost/benefit analysis of whether it is worth it to take the animal alive for a collector or sell it dead on the Asian aphrodisiac market.
These are all unintended uses that would shock and appall the inventor of the device, who just wanted us all to revel in the wonder of science and the natural world. So much for enlightening the masses.
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