All life forms to be barcoded

ap2

10th February 2005 - 03:35 PM

Scientists plans to barcode all species of life on the planet before they all die out.

The scheme does not involve actually drawing a barcode on the bemused beast – it involves invading their privacy by taking a snippet of DNA from all the known species on Earth and linking them to photographs, descriptions and scientific information.

When the barcode library is completed by 2010, it will allow any animal or plant to be identified in minutes using technology costing a few pounds.

Piro

11th February 2005 - 04:07 PM

i don't think it's an invasion of privacy... identifyability is quite a bit different from surveilance. Plus, in this way, if a species of animal goes extinct after being "bar coded", then we will still have its DNA and may be able to recreate it at some point. It will also provide a good educational resource for students studying biological sciences. All in all, i think it's a great idea as long as they don't have to kill or cause any extensive harm to anything in the process.

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