Mapping biodiversity

The Earth BioGenome Project, which was launched on November 1 by a loose association of institutions, is staggering in the scale of its ambition. It aims to sample, decode and store the DNA of every known species of plant and animal on Earth. This is to be done in three phases over a 10-year timeline. It will require the study of at least 1.5 million species and will cost upwards of $4.7 billion. This “blue sky” project could potentially trigger multiple revolutions in biosciences. First of all, as biodiversity disappears at an ever-increasing rate, the BioGenome Project will …