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As chairman of the International Barcode of Life (iBOL) project, Jesse authored a short essay, “Navigating around hazards to barcoding, 2011” published in the iBOL newsletter

The Alfred P. Sloan and Richard Lounsbery foundations have supported the creation of an interactive game to reduce the USA federal government budget deficit. The game has been played more than 150,000 times. It’s fun, more fun than actually reducing the deficit. Try the fantasy version at Budget Hero.

The New York Times created an interactive game “name the scientist” in which Jesse Ausubel is the wrong answer to the 4th question. Richard Dawkins is the right answer. Still we are flattered to be in such company. Enjoy the game.

On 23 August, PLoS Biology published an important paper from the Census of Marine Life, “How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean?” by Camilo Mora, Derek P. Tittensor, Sina Adl, Alastair G. B. Simpson, and Boris Worm. As of 12 September, the paper has been viewed more than 27,000 times, an astonishing number for a scientific paper on biodiversity. The paper attracted more than 1000 news stories around the world in more than 20 languages and 50 countries. Congratulations to Camilo and Company for having made a landmark contribution. For an example of the news coverage, see 8.7 million species exist on Earth, study estimates by Juliet Eilperin in the Washington Post.

On 5 September Version 2 of the Encyclopedia of Life [www.eol.org] became available. A press release describes some of the new features, which include easy ways to build communities and collections. The EOL is also now quite fully available in Spanish and Arabic. About 700,000 species now have webpages with content, remarkable progress since the first release in February 2008. Congratulations to the far-flung EOL team!

A sample of news coverage comes from the Guardian in the UK

An idea we have helped cultivate, the International Quiet Ocean Experiment, was the subject of a conference at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in Paris 30 August – 1 September 2011. On 3 September the French newspaper Le Monde ran a good article about the conference.

On 27 July 2011, the International Cosmos Prize committee announced the Census of Marine Life Scientific Steering Committee as the recipient of the 2011 International Cosmos Prize. Established in 1993 to commemorate Expo 90 in Osaka, Japan, the International Cosmos Prize aims to advance the basic concept of Expo 90, “The Harmonious Coexistence between Nature and Mankind.” The prize, which may be awarded to an individual or team, consists of a commendation, a medallion, and a monetary reward, currently 40 million yen ($500,000 US). It is awarded during a ceremony held in autumn, at which the individual or team delivers a commemorative lecture and takes part in a symposium held in their honor. Ian Poiner, Fred Grassle, Myriam Sibuet, Victor Gallardo, and Jesse Ausubel have been invited to represent the Steering Committee and the entire Census community at the ceremony 18 October 2011. The prize is a great honor for the 2,700 scientists as well as sponsors, and partners of the Census of Marine Life. For more information, see the press release at https://www.expo-cosmos.or.jp/whatsnew/2011jyusyo_e.pdf

What’s in the world’s most popular beverage-tea? Mark Stoeckle helped
lead three NYC high school students on a DNA barcoding investigation
of commercial tea products, published today in Nature’s online
journal Scientific Reports.

Together with tea expert Selena Ahmed, Tufts University, and
senior plant biologist Damon Little, The New York Botanical Garden,
they analyzed DNA barcodes of 146 tea products (73 regular teas, which
are prepared from leaves of tea plant, Camellia sinensis, and 73
herbal teas) from 25 NYC locations, representing 33 manufacturers, 17
countries, and 82 plant common names. One-third of herbal teas had
ingredients not listed on the label–including weeds such as annual
bluegrass and herbal plants such as chamomile. More on their Tea
Barcode of Life project on PHE website.

Harvard Medicine magazine did a good profile on PHE researcher Mark
Stoeckle and the DNA barcoding project