In its November editorial, Nature Reviews Microbiology (6, 794; 2008) reports that the archive of the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IJSEM) has been made available free online: a boon for scientists, historians and the public. As outlined on Nautilus, the value of systematics is often underappreciated for bacteria and viruses (http://blogs.nature.com/nautilus/2008/10/historical_microbiology_archiv.html). These are the most populous organisms on Earth, although more than 99% of bacteria have yet to be cultivated.

Naming and characterizing different species of bacteria, and the investigation of the relationships between them, is an important adjunct to genomics-based approaches, which are producing ever-increasing estimates of the numbers and types of these organisms.

Jean Euzeby, the IJSEM list editor, maintains a web resource that details all those species that have been ratified by an international committee. Links to this and other useful resources and websites are provided in the Nautilus post.