The Tree of Life Project (ToL) is a collaborative effort of biologists from around the world. The project provides information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their evolutionary history (phylogeny), and characteristics.
Another project that visualizes the phylogeny of life for the plants phylum is Deep Green by the Green Plant Phylogeny Research Coordination Group of Berkeley University.
The Pico Project makes accessible a complete resource for the reading and interpretation of the Discourse.
“The Discourse on the Dignity of Man (1486) by Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) is considered the “Manifesto of the Renaissance.” Indeed, it exalts the human creature for his/her freedom and capacity to know and to dominate reality as a whole. Far from being simply that, however, the Discourse deals with the vocation of the human creature who, possessing no determinate image, is urged to pursue its own perfection. Such a pursuit begins with moral self-discipline, passes through the familiar, multifarious world of images and fields of knowledge, and strives toward that most lofty goal which defies representation. Pico believes that this paradigm, by virtue of the fact that it is to be found in every tradition, is universal.”
The Genographic Project is a cooperation between IBM, the National Geographic Society, Spencer Wells, and the Waitt Family Foundation. Its aim is to collect genetic information of populations, isolated indiginous peoples and modern peoples, and to offer consumers the opportunity to trace back their genetic journey over time and geographies. The genetic markers, the Y-chromosome for men and the maternal metochondriae for women, allow to directly trace back descendencies, and by mapping DNA geneticists are able to calculate common ancestors between people. Richard Dawkins describes this process in an easy to understand fashion in his bestselling book The Ancestor’s Tale.
Dean Peterson from the Stony Brook Astron Group published a paper in Nature on the calibrator star Vega. He was able to show convincingly that Vega is, contrary to what was thought so far, a rapidly rotating star that is visible at a 5 degree pole-on angle. His paper Vega is a rapidly rotating star was published in Volume 440 of Nature, 13 April 2006.