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World Service,28 Feb 2026,9 mins

Has a company really discovered a million new species?

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Have a million new species just been discovered? That鈥檚 the claim made by Dr Oliver Vince, co-founder of a company called Basecamp Research, who are collecting genetic data to train AI systems. The hope is that they鈥檒l be able to use this to discover new medicines. But is this number a good one? Rob Finn, from the European Bioinformatics Institute, explains what is being counted and how you go about counting them. Credits: Presenter and producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown Sound mix: Dave O鈥橬eill Editor: Richard Vadon

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