Today in 2008, the Encyclopedia of Life was launched.
From the EOL Website: “The Encyclopedia will be an online reference and database on all 1.9 million species currently known to science and will stay current by capturing information on newly discovered and formally described species. The Encyclopedia of Life will help all of us better understand life on our planet.
Currently, data and information can be found across the globe, in many scattered databases, books, and journals. Even smart searchers are often overwhelmed by lists of sites found by search engines or by lack of easy access to libraries, museums, and other storehouses of knowledge. There is currently no single place where consumers of information can turn to for scientifically authenticated information about every known species on Earth. Encyclopedia of Life will provide this ‘one-stop shopping’.”
2008 was the 250th anniversary of the publication of the 10th edition of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus, marking the starting point of binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms.