Tree of Life
April 19, 2006
Jim Mason pointed me to the Tree of Life, an ambitious Web-based project allowing biologists to collaborate on capturing the entire phylogeny of life on earth.
The site lets you explore all the major taxa on the evolutionary tree, from eukaryotes all the way up through, say, the checkered elephant shrew.
My only beef is that they could be doing something a lot more imaginative with the interface. The depth of data here seems to call out for some kind of hyperbolic tree browser or other dynamic widget.
Still, this seems like a solid start to a useful project, and a win for the phylogenetic systematics crowd.
> The Tree of Life project
File under: Informatics
_____________________« The Oil Age | IA Summit Redux »
GLUT:
Mastering Information Through the Ages
“A penetrating and highly entertaining meditation on the information age and its historical roots.”
—Los Angeles Times
“A fascinating tour of the many ways that humans have collected, organized and shared information.”
—Publisher's Weekly
“A readable romp through the history of information processing, from the origins of writing to the emergence of libraries and finally the World Wide Web.”
—New Scientist
Now Available From:
