Wikipedia talk:USEP/Courses/JHU MolBio Ogg FA13/Group 81H

Hey Sean-

Looks like this is our area to compare notes and improve our article. I'm starting by reviewing the extrachromosomal DNA page. Grabriggs (talk) 04:45, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Hi Graham,

In hindsight I should have looked here first, but still getting used to the Wiki way. I did neutral mutation and poylsomy. I haven't looked ahead to the Unit 6 assignment, but I see it was called choosing a topic. FYI, I don't have my heart set on anything. Seanmcaruthers (talk) 04:01, 8 October 2013 (UTC)

Hey Sean- I don't really have a preference for any specific topic either. We can also go back to one of the others on the list, but I think as long as we choose any of them there should be plenty of material to use. Actually, with topics this broad the challenge might be using references to explain the basics. Extrachromosomal DNA for example could be a huge topic with a lot of info on basics but also tons of new research related to the topic. Are any of the four topics we looked at standing out to you? Grabriggs (talk) 23:17, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

Hi Graham, You are right, I don't think any topic will suffer from a lack of material for us to use. I think all the topics should have at leas a review or two that would really help us out both as measure of the state of the research and lists of the primary research. I like all the topics (or else why would we be here). I have some interest in neutral mutation as it relates to evolution, but then again, I think the extrachromosomal DNA would be fascinating for the same reason. Either of those stick out to you? Seanmcaruthers (talk) 07:47, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Hey Sean- Let's do neutral mutation then! I don't much about this subject so it is an interesting one for me to get into. I think we need to document that we are claiming this as our topic and do a quick paragraph on why this works for us. I'm going to look now and see how we mark this topic as ours. Grabriggs (talk) 20:59, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Hi guys, I 'claimed' the Extrachromosomal DNA article for our group 81D. I noticed this was on your assessment list - so please let me know if you were really set on it and Jason and I can discuss changing or switching the article. Thanks! Rebeccachappel (talk) 23:00, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Hi Graham, I went ahead and marked neutral mutation for us. It looks like we need the 200-300 word rationale for our decision on our group page by Tuesday night. I would assume this would include demonstrating the importance of the subject, the lack of quality and depth in the current article, and I suppose any general interest in it. I work tomorrow so was planning working on this Sunday and Monday if necessary. Happy to hear any thoughts you have. Seanmcaruthers (talk) 03:40, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

Hey Sean- Sounds good. I'll try to get some work done on this as well, hopefully this evening. I did find a wiki page for neutral theory of evolution that looks bigger than what are focusing on. I was about to reference a bunch of papers for us, but then realized its got its own topic. It looks like this topic has some controversy surrounding it due to creationists claiming neutral mutation is impossible and that mutation would lead to extinction. It should be an interesting challenge to keep opinion out of this! Grabriggs (talk) 15:31, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

Article Selection Rationale

Hi Graham - I thought I'd start a new section. It might help us follow things throughout this project. I wrote a brief rationale that isn't quite long enough and I feel needs a few more things, but I wanted to get the thoughts I had down at the time. Obviously feel free to edit/remove/add to in any manner you like. Seanmcaruthers (talk) 01:10, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

Hey Sean- I added a little at the end of the rationale making it just over 300 words. Take a look and feel free to edit. I think we are both on the same page with this topic and we should be good once you are comfortable with the rationale for this week. Grabriggs (talk) 23:55, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

Hi Graham - That looks great to me as is. I agree, sounds like we are on the same page. On to next week now.Seanmcaruthers (talk) 04:36, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

Initial Article Construction

Hey Sean- I'm going to try to do a little work on this week's assignment over the weekend. I'll start throwing stuff onto my sandbox unless you want to use your page. In my research so far it looks like there is a lot of information on the neutral theory of evolution but not as much on individual neutral mutations. I'll see if I can find some articles focusing on this. Any ideas on what sorts of pictures would represent this topic well? Grabriggs (talk) 01:55, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

Hey Graham - I'm a little on a loss for what images will help us, but I'll work on that this weekend too. Your sandbox is fine. I've found a few articles, but I haven't done a thorough review of them yet. I plan on getting that all together and summarized on Sunday since I'm working Saturday. I'm hoping to find some current material that takes use of all the sequencing that's been done the last few years and possibly how that compares to the older methods like just measuring gene frequencies in populations. Just an idea I had. There is definitely a lot of material on neutral and nearly neutral mutation theory, but I think we can dig out some good stuff on mutations themselves. Seanmcaruthers (talk) 09:17, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

Hey Graham - Good find on the article. I added a little more just now. I have several other articles I will go through tonight. I agree with your assessment on the role of neutral mutation in neutral theory specifically and evolutionary theory generally. As far as our outline, the general topics I was thinking should be covered are

• synonymous mutations
• historical perspective
• measurement of neutrality (I guess in sequences and the aspects of population genetics)

Again, this is all very rough. Seanmcaruthers (talk) 19:20, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

I added a few more articles. Nothing seems perfect for our topic, but finding some very interesting things for sure. Interestingly, when looking at Wikipedia articles, I found the article on silent mutation and dug a little. This was done as a project for a Molecular Biology class at JHU. It relates to our topic, and we can see what a finished project looks like. Seanmcaruthers (talk) 06:09, 21 October 2013 (UTC)

Great find on the silent mutation article! It's really helpful to see what a finished project for this class looks like. I'm going to put a skeleton together for the outline on the sandbox page and we can then start filling in some basic points from our references. I'll just put some rough ideas, feel free to edit. Grabriggs (talk) 00:00, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

I think we are good for this week. We've got an outline, albeit a basic one. Preliminary info on suggested outline is posted to the talk page of the article. We've got a lot of references and I think we are ready to actually start writing! Let me know if there is anything you think we need to to do to finish up for this week. Grabriggs (talk) 02:27, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

Drafting

Hey Sean- I'm starting to draft a lead and will be working on our sections this weekend. I noticed Dr. Ogg would like us to post our drafts on turnitin.com. I'd like to make my drafts available for you to review and add to before it goes into the site for review. We can start posting to the article's talk page this week, so I'm going to post the drafts there. This is just a draft so feel free to change it as you see fit. I'm just going to try to throw together ideas and get them on paper over the next few days! Grabriggs (talk) 01:48, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

Hey Graham - I saw your proposed edits on the article talk page and the response. It looked pretty good to me, but I understand the critique. I'm terribly tied up with work until late Saturday night, so Sunday I was planning on doing a lot of work on the article. I was thinking of tackling it a section at a time, and helping out with the lead. Are there any sections you have been working on or want to work on?Seanmcaruthers (talk) 06:35, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

Unit 8 Progress Report

• Added prose for numerous sections
• Inserted table showing codons and amino acid codes
• Suggested removing existing table in article on talk page

Grabriggs (talk) 04:07, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

• added lead and prose for new section
• added in text links

Seanmcaruthers (talk) 05:43, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

Note, moved update for week 10 to main project page Grabriggs (talk) 02:38, 12 November 2013 (UTC)