There’s a hidden bias affecting what we know – and don’t know – about nature

By Pietro Pollo, Visiting Fellow, Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, UNSW
Michael Kasumovic, Evolutionary Biologist, ARC Future Fellow, UNSW

Our knowledge about life on Earth is built through research on how organisms function, evolve and interact with each another and the environment. Yet there are far more species on our planet than scientists can study in detail.

So how should scientists decide which species to focus on? Fairly representing all species seems like a useful approach. It’s like predicting an election result: we can’t interview every citizen, so we need a sample that truly represents the overall population.

What drives scientists to uncover nature’s mysteries is curiosity. So, the organisms chosen…

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