How Many Species Are Out There? - Be Smart.

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Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/PBSDSDonate How do we protect what we don’t know exists? Don’t miss the next video! SUBSCRIBE! ►► http://bit.ly/iotbs_sub ↓ More info and sources below ↓ How many species are there on Earth? In biology, this is one of a fundamental question that we still don’t have a very good answer for. Imagine if chemists didn’t know all the elements of the periodic table, or if physicists didn’t know all of the particles of the standard model. Knowing how many different species there are is information we need to know in order to protect the environment, but it’s a lot harder than you think! Check out last week’s video, where we find a weird caterpillar in the Peruvian Amazon and ask “How do you discover a new species?” LEARN MORE: Costello, Mark J., Robert M. May, and Nigel E. Stork. "Can we name Earth's species before they go extinct?." Science 339.6118 (2013): 413-416. Locey, Kenneth J., and Jay T. Lennon. "Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2016): 201521291. May, Robert M. "The future of biological diversity in a crowded world." Current Science 82.11 (2002): 1325-1330. May, Robert M. "How many species inhabit the earth." Scientific American 267.4 (1992): 42-48. Mora, Camilo, et al. "How many species are there on Earth and in the ocean?." PLoS Biol 9.8 (2011): e1001127. Stork, Nigel E. "How many species are there?." Biodiversity and Conservation 2.3 (1993): 215-232. FOLLOW US: It’s Okay To Be Smart is written and hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D. Director: Joe Nicolosi Editor/animator/producer: Andrew Matthews Producer: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/itsokaytobesmart Twitter: @okaytobesmart @DrJoeHanson Tumblr: http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com Instagram: @DrJoeHanson Snapchat: YoDrJoe Produced by PBS Digital Studios Music via APM Stock images from Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This episode is 5 minutes long.

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This episode was published on July 1, 2026.

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Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/PBSDSDonate How do we protect what we don’t know exists? Don’t miss the next video! SUBSCRIBE! ►► http://bit.ly/iotbs_sub ↓ More info...

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