Paywalls are an enemy to science. Especially when what’s pay walled is descriptions or keys on how to identify species.
Is there a person or a place i can send species to for DNA and Genetic analysis to identify species?
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I’m getting a bit off topic here, but paywalls aren’t some new invention – before journals and databases were available digitally, these articles were behind literal walls, in the stacks of subscribing libraries, where access required physically going to that location and (often) paying fees for a university library card and/or interlibrary loans. The difference now is that digitization has also made it much easier to learn about the existence of these articles.
Don’t get me wrong: I am absolutely in favor of open access. This new availability of scientific material on just about any topic one can imagine is nothing less than transformative. But it only makes articles free to access – it doesn’t them free. What it does, in many cases, is shift the burden of payment from the readers to the authors. This is also highly problematic, particularly for people conducting research outside of institutional contexts or in precarious positions without secure, reliable access to funding.
Science has never been free, whether in the form of equipment (petri dishes microscopes, DNA sequencing, etc.) or in the form of the time and funds to travel to collect material.
I think this is worthwhile keeping in mind in the context of a goal to “see every species on the planet”. Given that the sheer diversity of life on earth makes achieving this goal seem unrealistic at best, it might make sense to consider the incredible privilege and financial investment it implies and whether this money might be spent more effectively in other ways than a quest that mostly serves one’s own personal satisfaction.
I mean, there is nothing wrong with pursuing activities that give one pleasure and that one finds meaningful – and certainly many of us find adding another species to our life list to be meaningful – but if that pursuit of a number becomes an end in itself (not because one is interested in what one has seen, or wants to understand it better), maybe it’s time to take a hard look at one’s priorities and one’s reasons for pursuing this goal in the first place.
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Seeing all the species is going to become more achievable as the decades pass - as the natural forests are destroyed, the seas become more acidified and climate change wreaks havoc on all the rest. What percentage of species will be left by 2100?
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Hey, that’s right! With a little gumption and a little luck, the first person to see all the world’s species might be alive today! 
Challenge: nuke the whole planet, then sequence the tens of thousands of “microbes” surviving here and there. Easy peasy. 
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However, you would likely have to learn how to analyze the results yourself - it is not all that hard, but requires an understanding of genetics to interpret the data.
Are there any resources that you recommend someone to study who is trying to build an understanding of genetics in the respect you mentioned? Resources such as books, articles, websites, etc.
It depends on your background and what your goals are - whether you are interested in understanding the details of how genetics works, or just want to know enough to understand what DNA barcodes are and how to interpret them. If you want the full picture, and introductory textbook on genetics would be the way to go (quite overpriced to buy new, but you can often find them in a library or for cheap second hand, especially from students trying to sell theirs if it is an edition that just became out-of-date). The textbook that I learned with was “Introduction to Genetic Analysis” by Griffiths et al.
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Molecular Biology Made Simple and Fun, by David P. Clark and Lonnie D. Russell is a really good place to start. Great for students and likely good for non scientists as well. A bit outdated for parts (published in 2010). But not bad.
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then stop talking about it, too much negativity about my goal and you all think i’m stupid? like i KNOW its impossible so stop saying it is!
i guess its the same goal honestly
thank you!
No one said you were stupid.
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I apologize, it was not my goal to offend or imply that I thought you were stupid at all.
The way I set goals for myself is very different and this wouldn’t work for me at all, but you weren’t asking for advice about that.
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One who thinks that it is overrated and hopes that genetic-based splitting proves a passing fad.
Don’t let them get you down. A lot of people have had to abandon dreams because life gets in the way. I remember how hard it was to face the fact that I was never going to see every place I wanted to see. But in the meantime, I saw more places than anyone else I know.
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I’m aware of a company that supposedly charges (or used to charge) around $35 bucks. I like that price. I’m thinking of sending them one of the two weird trillium I’ve come across. If they come back with atypical leaves, sepals, and petals next year… I’ll be even more interested in sending one of them off. Just for the heck of it… I mean, it’s so cheap so why not.
Don’t let people get u down… just keep going.
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If you know the goal is impossible, why formulate it as such? Why not formulate it as – see as many species as possible? Or – see as many species as possible in certain taxa, or in a certain region or regions?
Declaring your intent to pursue an impossible goal and seeking advice in the forum on ways to do this comes across as entitled, arrogant, and incredibly naive. I’m sure this is not your intent, but it is how it is likely to be perceived by others. You might get less critical feedback and more useful ideas if you express your goals in a less lofty fashion.
I would suggest that 2,000 is not that many and you have far from exhausted the potential in your home state. Before you start thinking about needing to travel to inaccessible places and invest money in DNA testing, a microscope would probably be a good start.
It is also worthwhile to ask yourself what taxa you have been underobserving (because you haven’t been paying attention to them, or because the habitats/times of day differ from your usual observing activity). You may find that you need to spend the time to learn how to identify many of the less charismatic organisms yourself – or at least, how to photograph them so that a fairly specific ID is possible.
Now, if it is simply about being able to say that you have seen x number of species, I imagine you could easily get another 2,000 or just by visiting your nearest zoo, botanical garden, and butterfly house. I imagine a well-stocked garden center or pet store would yield a few hundred more. Of course, you will have to consider whether you want to upload these observations to iNat – correctly marked as captive/cultivated, of course – or whether some other way of tracking these species might be more suitable than mass observation of non-wild organisms. But in terms of efficiency, this is going to be a far quicker way to check off many of the rarer species than trying to hunt for them in the wild.
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I don’t think you need to apologise.
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Simply because thats my goal, no one ever said it was possible or it will happen
All i stated was its my goal, simple as that.
As well as Entitled? Arrogant?? Naive???
Seems likes your the one who are those things for saying such.
I merely was wondering about such things and i do a lot of research myself
Im one of 2 people in the world im aware of doing this, but i dont hear you calling Joel Saltore arrogant
I met Joel Sartore once in the field in New Mexico many years ago, in the early years of his Photo Ark project to photo-document all the animal species in human care, that is species of conservation concern. Nice guy, great photographer. He had all his photo gear packed into a little hatchback car that he drove from Nebraska. We stood out in the wind and blowing dust to photo a tiny isopod in a tray of water and he patiently took dozens of photos till he had the perfect shots. He inspired me to put more effort into my photography.
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