Talk:Metabolism/Draft

According to Larry's intructions on the Approval page, I am sticking this tag on behalf of Nancy ... I set the time limit to December 28th so that the Christmas' holiday does not prevent any interested editors from contributing or removing the approval. Pedro Silva 05:06, 21 December 2006 (CST)

Dear Pedro, A nice start indeed, and an example to all the slower-moving biologists like myself. But i wonder what your plan is: To leave this article in outline format, or to turn it into a narrative like an old-fashioned encyclopedia article. I don't say that i know what is better for something like this.

The reason for a little more of a narrative is that some student looking for metabolism might start at, say, biology, which will have a sentence or two (or an outline link), referring to biochemistry, ditto, which will then refer to here. At some point along the chain he should encounter an elementary discussion of metabolism as a whole (however it may seem to you and to me, for which the topic is the proper subject of a year-long academic course.)

Another matter--how should we incorporate a metabolic map into Cz--I mean a full size complex poster. I can see how to put in a section, but it would be a formidable job doing the whole thing, even if looked at section by section. But it would make an ideal clickable map. I don't think there's a good example in WP. DavidGoodman 22:39, 31 October 2006 (CST)

Dear David,

I was thinking of providing a short narrative that would provide a framework to understand the basic outline of metabolism. I think that detailed descriptions should remain in the existing pathway-specific articles, in order to keep article size manageable. It would be nice to have a good metabolic chart, but too much detail would make in unreadable. I have made a such a chart (it is in my Metabolism pages, in www2.ufp.pt/~pedros/bq/integration.htm) but I find it somewhat unappealing: Art and drawing were never my stronger side ;-) Pedro Silva 06:00, 1 November 2006 (CST)

Nor mine. Perhaps there will be someone here who's good at this. As you say, It will take someone very good to get it to work well. DavidGoodman 16:38, 1 November 2006 (CST)

I just looked this over for the first time, prompted by a message from the "to approve" biology workshop page. I think that as it stands, there is nothing that precludes approval. I would like to come up with a paragraph aimed at the reader who thinks of "metabolism" in the whole organism sense, including multicellular animal, meaning us people [;-)] if I can come up with it. I think whoever knows how should put one of those time limit approval messages here in the talk page, you know - "unless removed this article will be approved on say 2 days from now". Nancy Sculerati MD

Thank you for your input, Nancy! I tweaked your addition a bit. I will be waiting for the approval by another editor to stick the "to approve" template: since I wrote most of it, my vote does not count :) Pedro Silva 06:36, 20 December 2006 (CST)

Hey Pedro. I've actually commented out the approval template because I came to approve it - but when I skimmed the article I noticed that none of the images were coming through. I don't know exactly why that is, but i did check that nothing happened in the version change - and the "to approve" link had the same problem. I'm copying this note to both your and Nancy's page, since I suspect it's more likely to be seen there. Thanks! -- Sarah Tuttle 20:15, 28 December 2006 (CST)

Pre-approval edits

Pedro, I've managed to do to you exactly what would raise my ire when it was done to me on biology. All I can say, is I came to appreciate that the nudges of others, (though not always correct), always forced the article into a more accurate and interesting state. So, please, forgive me in advance. (1) I have made some changes in the first paragraph to reflect anabolism and catabolism in whole organisms. Please make sure they are correct. (2) I made a few minor edits in history, I think bringing in health sciences and medicine for insensible losses is good, because its true and it might lead the user through hyperlinks. (3) I "added" more of a caption under your (beautiful, and I love it, but its not finished) "metabolism" cartoon because it's actually (I think) a "catabolism" cartoon and I know that it would be improved if a simple phrase about each process was added. Point out the mitiochondrium. Add in the cytochromes clearly. (4) I copied the image and re-labelled it "anabolism"- not that I actually made the image (I've got to learn how- what program do you use-adobe illustrator?), but I hoped you would- show the nucleus and the endoplasmic reticulum, simple schemas of protein synthesis etc. (5) Can you fit an image of cell division somewhere? Or of growth of a plant bud? That aspect of catabolism. Any way, I'm going to send you a message on your talk page, and ask Gareth and Chris and David to take a look, I think this is going to be a great article. Nancy Sculerati MD 09:38, 29 December 2006 (CST)

No need to apologize :-) I enjoyed your edits, and feel they did improve the text. Before I read your message, I had already improved the captions following your hints. I also made an "anabolism" picture, before seeing that you intended it to be about whole cell processes :-( There it is, anyway... But do feel free to put another image! About the program I used for those pictures: just plain old Paint. Not fancy, but that is the only one I can handle. (and at about the level of my lack of skill) Unfortunately, I do not believe I would be able to draw those things you asked ...

PS: I was not involved in the Biology article (too busy fixing metabolic articles).. But I did follow the process in the talk page ;-) Pedro Silva 10:18, 29 December 2006 (CST)