Though the Scio Molecular scanner is still in it's early stages, it's a commercially sold product that anyone can own, if you can fork out the $950. It's mostly marketed for things like telling when your fruit is ripe or for detecting toxins in substances but I don't believe the advertisements cover the whole scope of what valuable work this will enable even the most amateur nature hobbyist to do. With this tool you could accurately classify any known species of plant, fungus, or mineral you came across, and also tell whether a plant is edible. As an amateur mycologist this would be incredibly handy. There are about 10,000 described and classified species of mushroom and that's thought to be only about a fifth of what's actually out there. I'm not sure if the Scio database has covered every listed species of plant and fungi or who exactly they're working with to collect data on the chemical makeup of things. But that means every person with a Scio is doing valuable research for what could be one of the greatest open source projects to ever exist for enthusiasts like you and I!
Scio Eliminates Significant Difficulties in the Identification Process
This method would take all the pain and guesswork out of classifying a species. The first question everyone asks about a mushroom they just found is, "Is it edible?" And you'd be surprised how hard it is to find the answer to that question sometimes. If you can't find it in a general identification book you have to contact local and online experts and enthusiasts, read volumes of genus specific classification books, and if all else fails the specimen has to be genetically sequenced and contrasted with a massive data pool. The Scio could eliminate the need for all of this. It can detect any toxin its database presently has listed. If you encounter something that Scio has yet to add then you can send in the info and add it for them! Making you and everyone else playing around with a Scio pioneers in research of a new technology and methodology that can completely transform the way we classify plants and fungi! This is a must for anyone who's seriously invested in taxonomy or mineralogy.
