Kress says the future is pretty far away — there are literally millions of species to sequence, and thousands more yet to be discovered.
But at least here, on these 12 acres in the Potomac, the job is complete.
"It's pretty amazing to walk through here and know we have a DNA bar code for every plant that's here," Kress says.
This quote makes the task of cataloging life sound far too simple. To catalog the whole of *plant* life on Earth would probably require resources in excess of the human genome project. A 12-acre plot near DC is one thing, but the tropical forests are a different animal. Then, if we wanted to catalog microbial life ... my god, we would have to shuttle in workers from other galaxies.
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Possibly related: Q & A with Rob Dunn
