GNA is a system of databases, programs, and web services – a cyberinfrastructure - that can be used to discover, index, organize and interconnect on-line information about biological names and organisms.
To give a thing a name is to provide an anchor around which we can collect observations and knowledge. The use of names as our framework for knowledge of biology began with the system introduced by Linnaeus about 250 years ago. His ‘scientific names’ were are latin binomials, such as Ba humbugi (it’s a snail), Pompholyxophrys punicea (a microbe) or Homo sapiens (a self-aware biped). This system is used almost universally.
Names are included in almost every statement and database about organisms. In the e-world, names are metadata which can assist the discovery and organization of information about organisms.