Science intends to tag all life

Scientists are to establish a giant catalogue of life – to, in effect, “barcode” every species on Earth, from tiny plankton to the mighty blue whale.

Initial projects will focus on birds and fish, recording details in their genetic make-up that can be used to tell one life form from another.

The initiative was launched in London at the International Conference for the Barcoding of Life.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Science intends to tag all life

Open source leaders slam patents

The war of words between Microsoft and the open source movement heated
up this week as Linux founder Linus Torvalds led an attack on software
patents.

In a panel discussion at a Linux summit in California Mr Torvalds said
software patents were a problem for the open source movement.

BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4229689.stm