Encyclopedia of Life

The Encyclopedia of Life ( EOL short, German: Encyclopedia of Life ) is an online encyclopedia, which will include entries developed by professionals of all known species of living organisms. It will be freely accessible. Many entries that contain video and audio files, images, graphics and text.

The project has five major institutions are currently involved in, more to come: Harvard University, the Smithsonian Institution, the Field Museum in Chicago, Missouri Botanical Garden, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts. They are all coordinated by a board chaired by James Hanken, director of the Louis Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Each of the institutions will invest five million U.S. dollars, added two charitable foundations, with 25 million dollars. The products serve both the public as primarily of science in recognition of the entire earth's ecosystem, as well as the study of ecological problems.

The completion of the encyclopedia is expected to take about ten years to complete, on 26 February 2008, the project started with 30,000 entries. The rush to this site but completely underestimated, so it had to be immediately switched to a demonstration mode.

First of articles mainly in animals, plants and fungi are to be created, but then also to microorganisms and non-cellular systems such as viruses. It is contemplated, the later recording of extinct species.

The cost of this project are (about 74 million euros ) at more than 100 million U.S. dollars.

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