Comments on The Beagle Project Blog: Would that which we call a rose, by a DNA barcode,...

Nice post. Media is silly like that. And unfortuna...

2008-02-21T16:23:00.000Z

Nice post. Media is silly like that. And unfortunately, scientists seem to constantly cater to that. If you want attention, you better write a sensationalist press release.

I remember reading about a palm tree on BBC News a month ago or so where they kept exclaiming it was "self-destructing" because it lived for a hundred years and then suddenly flowered and died. As if dying after a strenuous bout of reproduction is in any way exceptional among plants, or for that matter other organisms. But how else to get media interested in a tree?

Hi becca, thanks for your comment (and for enthusi...

2008-02-20T18:11:00.000Z

Hi becca, thanks for your comment (and for enthusing over on the Clock). This isn't really any different from Woese's suggestion. DNA barcoding is really just a new name pasted onto that idea ...but it's not the idea here that's so important but the will and large scale cooperation needed to make it a reality. It's an organised, standardised, international approach to actually implement Woese's dream. There's more on Woese and the history of barcoding here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_barcoding#Origin

Great post!I'm not terribly familiar with the curr...

2008-02-19T15:30:00.000Z

Great post!
I'm not terribly familiar with the current literature on this topic- but I remember back in the day Woese suggesting using ribiosomal genes as true universal identifiers. How does the barcode concept differ from that?

Another very interesting post, thanks. I had no id...

2008-02-18T20:43:00.000Z

Another very interesting post, thanks. I had no idea we don't yet have a reliable barcoding technique for plants.

Wow again. Keep 'em coming. And, by the way, thank...

2008-02-18T14:22:00.000Z

Wow again. Keep 'em coming. And, by the way, thank you again.