Lack of access to published information about biodiversity is one of the major inhibitors to efficient scientific research today. It’s such a longstanding problem, in fact, that it has a name. The taxonomic impediment. For hundreds of years, scientists and naturalists have published information about Earth’s species in books and journals. Many of these works, however, are available in only a few select libraries, and information about species is often not available within the countries in which those species live. The taxonomic impediment is a very poignant reality for Paul Smith and his colleagues working in Paraguay.
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