h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay, welcome to the top of my todo list .

I've taken a quick look over it and fixed the GuideML (it was in lowercase ). I'll start working tomorrow...

lower case syndrome is a common affliction plaguing people who are too lazy to hold down the shift key when they type i know - i suffer from it!

@h2g2 servers

Okay, I finally through the entry, with the help of some pen and paper .

Let's see... apart from the basic readability things, what did I want to mention...


`Happily, in many early cases of infection, removal of the catheter solves the problem because the bacteria would be forced to multiply in areas where stagnant urine collected, and would be flushed out by repeated calls of nature.'

Rephrased, because the tense changed midsentence.


`Interestingly, E. coli was the leading cause of diarrhoea among US troops during the 1991 Gulf War, more than half of whom suffered two or more episodes of the disease.'

Rephrased for readablility.


Removed a few `And's from E-coli... Ecosystem, third paragraph.


For example; EcoR1 recognises 'GTTAAC' (and its complementary strand) and cuts the DNA apart between the 'G' and the first 'A'. Sma1 recognises 'CCCGGG' and cleaves in between the third 'C' and the first 'G'.

Are the names of those enzymes supposed to be only partially italicised?


In the bulleted list under `Further Biological Studies Based Upon E. coli', I've added tags around each item:

...text...

as recommended in <./>Subeditors-GuideML#UL</.>


As I said above, I've also made some small changes. If you'd like me to generate a difference file, I can do that for you.

My connection's been pretty flaky recently (hence the delay), and I apologise for my continuing inability to meet deadlines for various reasons.

Robert

Also, in sentences like:

`E. coli is the best understood bacteria, a scientific model for all life and as such has had a leading role in vastly increasing our understanding of the living world.'

should I change `bacteria' to `bacterium'? `Is' is singular, and `bacteria' is plural, and they should be the same... however, which word is canonically used?

Robert

Thanks for your hard work Rob-, um, Will.

To pick up on a few of your questions:

- Yep, only partially italicised.
- And yes, it should be 'bacterium' instead of 'bacteria'. You cooouuuulllld say either but the former is more correct I suppose.



Ste

Maybe Rill'd work? Or Wobert ?

Okay, I'll go update the entry now, then look at it again, then update it, then lo... okay, you get the idea.

{Robert,Will}

`Once inside the human body, it colonises and multiplies inside the gastrointestinal tract, producing a deadly toxin that kills the lining cells of the tract.'

How about...

`Once inside the human body, it colonises and multiplies inside the gastrointestinal tract, producing a deadly toxin that kills the cells lining the tract.'



`Happily, in many early cases of infection, removal of the catheter solves the problem because the bacteria would be forced to multiply in areas where stagnant urine collected, and would be flushed out by repeated calls of nature.'

I think that I noted that this needs a tense change... I'm kinda stuck, though . Can you rephrase it for me or something?



`Needless to say, they chose the E. coli.'

How about...

`Needless to say, they chose the E. coli bacterium.'

or...

`Needless to say, they chose E. coli.'



`There is great need for micro organisms to do the job of recycling sulphur in the environment. E. coli is deeply involved in this process. ^^Its importance does not stop short of recycling^^; researchers are using isotope studies of various elements including sulphur to assess the extent of microbial activity in the environment, monitoring important links in the sulphur cycle and tracking microbial and higher organism food chain.'

I don't know what you mean by `Its importance does not stop short of recycling'.

"Happily, in many early cases of infection, removal of the catheter solves the problem because the bacteria would be forced to multiply in areas where stagnant urine collected, and would be flushed out by repeated calls of nature"

um... what about.. "Happily, in many early cases of infection, removal of the catheter solves the problem. This is because the bacteria is forced to multiply in areas where stagnant urine collects, and is subsequently flushed out by repeated calls of nature"?

yes, i think 'they chose e. coli' would be better...

"Its importance does not stop short of recycling" - whoops. what is meant is that the importance of e. coli in the environment is not limited to its ability to recycle elements/compounds.

* points to the first question in his last post *



Oh, okay. I get it now... I think . Is this okay:

`Happily, in many early cases of infection, removal of the catheter solves the problem as the bacteria is then forced to multiply in areas where stagnant urine collects, and is subsequently flushed out by repeated calls of nature.'



Changed



Changed to:

`However, the importance of E. coli in the environment is not limited to its ability to recycle elements and compounds. Researchers are...'

oh, oops... yeah, 'cells lining...' is fine. ditto other changes

Changed . I'll carry on subbing later tonight or tomorrow... it's blog time now .

don't get me started on backlog... i've spent the last two hours in front of the pc just *replying* to them!

However, E. coli isn't all monster.

Link removed. That article isn't exactly in the Edited Guide. Nice try, Ste .

i found it quite funny, really...

Dammit!

If it wasn't for you pesky kids I would have got that monster in the edited guide.

Shall I put the monster in PR first then?

Ste

You could try, but they'd probably want you to remove the smiley

Hi, just saw this article in the *what's coming up* section.

Thought you might like to link this to an aritcle of mine already in the edited guide. I think you'll find it's appropriate...

Antibiotics and the Emergence of Bacterial Drug Resistance A591374

Thanks.

Orcus

Thanks . I've added it here:

`These toxins cause massive quantities of water to be lost from the body through the anus, and in severe cases can cause dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, both of which can lead to death if the disease is not stopped in time with ^^antibiotics^^.'



Technically speaking, E. coli is a rod-shaped, Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic bacterium in the family Enterobacteriaceae.

Should `Enterobacteriaceae' be italicised, as it's a bio term?



`Our friendly and rapidly-replicating E. coli out-compete pathogens; they even inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria by secreting various substances that are toxic to non-indigenous bacteria.'

What does `out-compete' mean ?



`Researchers are using isotope studies of various elements including sulphur to assess the extent of microbial activity in the environment, monitoring important links in the sulphur cycle and tracking microbial and higher organism food chain.'

`tracking... higher organism food chain.' Does that make sense to anyone, 'cause I'm stuck ?

'Should `Enterobacteriaceae' be italicised, as it's a bio term?'

Enterobacteriaceae is the family of which E. coli belongs. Only genera and species names are italicised. So no.


'What does `out-compete' mean?'

That it competes with other pathogens and wins.


'`tracking... higher organism food chain.' Does that make sense to anyone, 'cause I'm stuck?'

Hmm, it isn't clear. Try this:

"Researchers are using isotope studies of various elements including sulphur to assess the extent of microbial activity in the environment, monitoring important links in the sulphur cycle and tracking the flow of these elements in the food webs of ecosystems."

Or something similar.



Ste

Hey Orcus (hello)

Where's the 'what's coming up' section? Can't find it for the life of me... :/

Ste