"Encyclopedia of Life" takes shape: 30,000 species

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - About 30,000 species of creatures and plants have been listed in a draft "Encyclopedia of Life" that may aid understanding of issues from human ageing to disease, scientists said on Monday.

The free Internet encyclopedia (www.eol.org) aims to eventually list all 1.8 million known species of life in a $100 million, 10-year project begun in 2007.

The first draft, with 25 fully completed entries including text, pictures and video, is due to be launched at a conference in Monterey, California, on Wednesday. A further 30,000 have less detailed information.

"Our major message to the world is 'Here's our first attempt at putting together this encyclopedia, please give us our feedback, your criticisms, your comments'," James Edwards, executive director of the project, told Reuters.

Edward Wilson, a Harvard biologist whose call for a portrait of life in a 2003 speech helped spur creation of the encyclopedia, said: "This thing is taking off like a big booster rocket. ... It is already galvanizing research."

The encyclopedia has been dubbed a "macroscope" -- helping to identify big patterns often overseen by scientists working in narrow fields.

Researchers into human ageing, for instance, often study a small range of creatures such as fruit flies or worms in laboratories to try to untangle why organisms age.

"We'd like to look across a group of organisms, a family of flies, for example, for the extremes," said Edwards.