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Web surfers know you can find just about you want on the Internet, and now that includes pretty much every species living on the planet - estimated at some 100 million.
Toronto-based Spongelab Interactive and the Biodiversity Institute (University of Guelph) are finalists in the MacArthur Foundation 2010 International Digital Media Learning Competition for their social networking game called the Biodiversity Challenge.
Using short snippets of DNA -- that twisted pair of biological code and genetic sequences -- the game is designed to support students by doing real science in the International Barcode of Life Project (iBOL).
Fewer than two million species have been formally identified, scientists say, so
Over the next five years, participants in the iBOL project are hoping to process more than five million additional specimens Students and youth from around the world, along with local scientists at colleges and universities, will participate in a collaborative social networking educational game in a race to identify and assign unique DNA barcodes to as many species as possible.The project was developed and submitted by Robert Hanner, of the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario and the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph.
Collaborators include Jeremy Friedberg from Spongelab Interactive, as well as team members from organizations such as the Encyclopedia of Life; the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University, and Bioscience Education Canada
Some $200,000 is being sought to ramp up and continue the project, organizers describe.
The U.S.-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation launched its five-year, $50 million Digital Media and Learning initiative in 2006 to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way people, especially young people, learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life.
The project website is here:
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