[Zoobank-list] FW: [Taxacom] TED-prize for EO Wilson: some thoughts regarding thefuture of science communication

[Donat Agosti]

I just got reminded, that this message I have sent out March 9 hasn't been
delivered

Here some quotes out and comments from Wilson TED-lecture: Building the
Encyclopedia of Life, including his wish list
(http://www.ted.com/tedprize/2007/wilson.cfm)

The following is an excerpt from Wired
(http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/03/bill_clinton_ou.html)

"
Biologist E.O. Wilson followed Nachtwey by saying that he came on behalf of
"insects and other small creatures," to "make a plea for them." Wilson's
wish: "I wish that we will work together to help to create the key tool we
need to inspire preservation of earth's biodiversity: The Encyclopedia of
Life." As I understand it, this would be a biological Super-Wikipedia, a
collaborative project among scientists and amateurs that would contain
information about all life on the planet.

"We live on a mostly unexplored planet," Wilson emphasized. Recent years
have seen the discovery of two new kinds of whales, a new kind of elephant,
a distinct new kind of gorilla, and more. And on the microscopic (and
smaller) scale, the earth is filled with the "dark matter of the biological
world," the bacteria, which are only beginning to be discovered.

"Our lives depend upon these creatures," Wilson said. He estimated that 500
species of friendly bacteria live symbiotically with us in our mouths and
throats, and that they probably fend of pathogenic bacteria. When it comes
to species discovery, "Scientists are like explorers in a rowboat launched
onto the Pacific Ocean." (Wilson also allowed that he believes "true
aliens," creatures from outer space, might live among us on earth in the
form of a bacterial species, which would have had billions of years to
arrive.)

The "human juggernaut" is destroying the earth's biodiversity, Wilson said,
through habitat destruction ("including climate change"); the spread of
invasive species, such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses, into every
country; pollution; population expansion; and overharvesting, driving
species into extinction through over-hunting and -fishing. (Wilson used the
opening letter of each of these elements to create the acronym "HIPPO.")
Previous cataclysms of this sort, Wilson said, such as "the last one that
ended the age of dinosaurs, took 5 to 10 million years to repair."

In order to prevent catastrophe, Wilson said, "we need to have the biosphere
properly explored." He called for "a biological moon shot," a project on the
scale of the mapping of the human genome to map and discover the biological
code of all of the life on the planet. The project, he said, could transform
the science of biology and inspire a new generation of biologists to
continue the quest that started for him 60 years ago: "to search for life,
to understand it, and finally, above all, to preserve it."
"


Donat




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