Rob Finn
Research scientist at the European Bioinformatics Institute and custodian of large biological databases; provides expert explanation on microbial species counting and DNA sequencing methods.
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Feb 28, 2026 • 9min
Has a company really discovered a million new species?
Rob Finn, research scientist at the European Bioinformatics Institute who manages large biological databases, breaks down what the claim actually counts. He talks about microscopic bacteria rather than animals, how environmental DNA is collected and sequenced, and how genomes are reconstructed and grouped by genetic similarity. He assesses whether a million microbial species is a plausible data-driven figure.
