Development of science education content that visualises the entire history of 4 billion years of life on a timeline

In the four billion years since life on earth emerged, an impressive biodiversity has been established. Indeed, there are around 8.7 million different forms of life on planet earth today. During this time, millions of lifeforms have also become extinct. The story of the history of life is fascinating and scientists and other people are keen to create new and innovative ways to explain the history and importance of biodiversity that has unfolded over the past four billion years. Professor Masashi Kimura, College of Art, Nihon University, Japan, is combining science and design to create a timeline of biodiversity that represents the earliest stages of life through to life on earth today. Although there exist visual books that deal with the history of the earth and biological evolutionary lineages, there is no visual representation of biodiversity and continental migration that can be studied simultaneously on a digital timeline, and this is what Kimura is creating. To do this, he and his team read visual books and websites published by natural history museums in Europe and the US in order to collect relevant scientific information. They also had discussions with scientists and designers, including Dr George McGavin, Professor Emeritus of Oxford University and current BBC nature programme presenter, on how problems with visualisation could be overcome.