Systematic biology is a branch of science which identifies organisms, assesses their evolutionary relationships to one another and enables us to decide whether species are new to science, extinct or the same as those we already know about. Ecologists, molecular scientists + many others rely on this sort of information in order to work out what organisms they are dealing with and find out more about them. An influential House of Lords Select Committee has recently published a report entitled What on Earth? The Threat to the Science underpinning conservation which "found compelling evidence that the level of systematic biology expertise in the United Kingdom has, despite some areas of increased activity, continued to fall overall". They advise increasing financial support, enhancing collaborations + the setting of research priorities.