Slashdot: Encyclopedia of Life opened up to the public today with its first 30,000 pages in place — and, according to the AP, promptly crumbled even before being Slashdotted. (The site seems fine now.) We discussed this project last year when it was announced. The Telegraph has an overview of the launch, and reports that only 25 “exemplar” pages on the site are fully fleshed out to the extent scientists hope eventually to attain for all species; the other few tens of thousands are expanded placeholders. The project hopes to begin taking input from citizen-scientists late this year.

• Slashdot.org: Encyclopedia of Life Launches First 30,000 Pages

More critters on earth than we thought!!?

NaijaGuy writes “27 unknown species of spiders, centipedes, scorpion-like creatures and other animals have been discovered in caves beneath national parks in California’s Sierra Nevada. The Texas-based Zara Environmental led the 3-year exploration and has published reports with photos of the fascinating critters. “Not only are these animals new to science, but they’re adapted to very specific environments — some of them, to a single room in one cave,” said Joel Despain, a cave specialist who helped explore 30 of the 238 known caves in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.”

• Slashdot | 27 Unknown Species Discovered