Encyclopedia of Life starts online—at times

The project to create an online Encyclopedia of Life with a Web page for every species has taken its first, baby steps.

The free-access, scientifically vetted encyclopedia, headquartered at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., opened its first portal to preliminary Web pages (www.eol.org) Feb. 26. Some 11 million hits in the first few hours swamped the site.