[Taxacom] mission impossible?

[Marko Prous]

Dear Paul,

Here you can read an estimate.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1521291113

They used upper bound of 3.2*10^30 microbial cells on Earth. Perhaps the 
order of magnitude will not change when you add cells of multicellular 
organisms.

 From that they estimated 1 trillion microbial species on Earth.

Cheers,
Marko

On 2017-11-08 09:17, muscapaul wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> "One fool can ask more questions than seven wise men can answer." I was
> asked a question and thought to approach more than seven wise men. An
> acquaintance of mine is building an exhibition and somewhere in it he wants
> to point to the (relative) insignificance of men (as a species) in the
> grander scale of things. He is on a more philosophical approach. One way he
> wants to do it is to relate the number livings cells in men to the total
> number of living cells on earth. So here is the million dollar question:
> What is the best (gu)es(s)timate of how many living cells there are on
> Earth, including both the unicellular and multicellular organisms. Cells,
> not individuals or specimens...
> 
> Just hoping not to open a can of worms...
> 
> Thanks for your input.
> 
> Paul
> 
> 
> *Paul Beuk | Curator biology*
> 
> 
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