The DNA barcoding work at the University of Guelph’s Centre for Biodiversity Genomics has been featured in a new Science magazine article.

CBG director Paul Hebert spoke with the publication and explained that it is now possible to identify a new species in just a few hours, at low cost.

In 2010, Hebert founded the International Barcode of Life (iBOL) at U of G, which is building a reference library of known species. As the article notes, iBOL is about to begin a new seven-year, global field barcoding project called BIOSCAN that will see researchers at 2,500 sites around the world collecting bulk specimens to help discover new species and reveal how other species interact.

It’s work that Hebert says is transforming our ability to understand biodiversity and allowing scientists to easily track life on the planet: “Biodiversity science is entering a very golden era.”