Michael Specter: The danger of science denial

A New, Somewhat Moldy Branch On The Tree Of Life hide captionTwo cells — one marked mostly in green, the other in blue — of a newly discovered organism found in water samples collected from the University of Exeter pond. Scientists think these "cryptomycota" use their tails to propel themselves while searching for food. Meredith Jones/Nature If you think biologists have a pretty good idea about what lives on the Earth, think again. This comes as a big surprise. "We thought we knew what about the major groups that existed," says James, who is curator of fungus at the University of Michigan. Many fungi are already familiar. Biologists figure they've probably only cataloged about 10 percent of all fungal species. Oops. "But the reality is most of the diversity of life we can't grow in a laboratory. And microscopic organisms are just about impossible to find just looking at dirt or water through a microscope. "About 10 years ago, people started using molecular approaches," he says. Using those techniques, they struck pay dirt.