Has a company really discovered a million new species?
Investigating whether Basecamp Research found hundreds of thousands of bacteria species.
Have a million new species just been discovered?
That’s the claim made by Dr Oliver Vince, co-founder of a company called Basecamp Research, who are collecting genetic data to train AI systems. The hope is that they’ll be able to use this to discover new medicines.
But is this number a good one? Rob Finn, from the European Bioinformatics Institute, explains what is being counted and how you go about counting them.
Credits:
Presenter and producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Dave O’Neill
Editor: Richard Vadon
Last on
Broadcasts
- Sat 28 Feb 202605:50GMTBBC World Service except Australasia, East and Southern Africa, East Asia & South Asia
- Sun 1 Mar 202605:50GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa
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