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

hello, danny! (yes, i'm the one who's been flooding the musicians' guild conversation forum with complaints of snapping guitar strings, and wild rantings about the trombone... ) so i see that my microbes have gotten to you! it's so much fun fissioning the article, isn't it? (the only complaint i received was that the article was too long) anyway, just thought i'd tell you that i'll accept whatever you decide to do with the 'the harm they do' and 'are they at fault' bit - whether you think they should be kept together or split apart. (i know i indicated a possible split, but i'm starting to think that it would work equally well as one article)

anyway, cheers, and thanks for getting to it so fast!

Hi Farlander

For the moment, I've split it into two:

The Good They Do
The Harm They Do

I haven't actually got round to editing (or reading ) them yet, so I'll keep you informed if I change my mind for any reason!



Danny B.

's ok danny! take your time! and don't let the bugs bite...

Hello again...

Sorry for taking so long to get round to this, but I *am* now working on it

One quick question: you say that the enzyme involved in PCR is from _E. coli_. I thought PCR polymerases were derived from _Thermus aquaticus_ i.e. Taq..?

Let me know what you think!



Danny B.

ah, you've done pcr before, then, danny? well, join the club! well, most of the polymerases we're using today are from t. aquaticus, yes. but back when pcr was first invented, mullis and co were using e. coli polymerase - which, as it turned out, was not thermally stable so they had to keep on adding fresh enzyme every few cycles or so (and imagine what it must have cost back then!!!). then they found t. aquaticus, and discovered, hey, this thing's polymerase is stable at 94 degrees! ... of course, they later realised that taq polymerase had *no* proofreading ability, which meant that every so often the enzyme was botching stuff up, so they went looking for others. nowadays we still use taq for amplification purposes (like using pcr for identification purposes, when we're only interested in the size of the bands); for sequencing purposes, most people have switched to pfu (from pussilus furiosus, whose enzyme is stable *and* has proofreading ability, but is like at least 5 times more expensive than taq!). hope that clears things up a bit.

oh, and i've seen 'the good they do' thanks!

I've now finished my first dash through '...the good...', so feel free to let me know if there's anything I need to change.

Quick question on '...the harm...'

You talk specifically about bacteria, than go on to talk about measles, chickenpox, flu etc. Do you want me to change bacteria to 'micro-organisms' here, or alternatively I could add some examples of headline-grabbing bacterial disease..? (MRSA being an obvious one!)

Let me know

oh dear, where exactly did i do that? it's been so long since i last read it that i can't remember what goes where anymore... yeah, i think it would be good to change it to microorganisms... i'm pretty sure i've mentioned mrsa somewhere though, i think along with p. aeruginosa...

oh, and thanks for keeping my references in! i've to point out, however, that the refs

Dixon, B. 1994. Power unseen: How microbes rule the world. WH Freeman and Company Limited, New York.

Madigan, MT, JM Martinko and J Parker. 1997. Brock Biology of Microorganisms, 8th ed. Prentice-Hall International, Inc, New Jersey.

Margulis, L and D Sagan. 1986. Microcosmos: Four billion years of microbial evolution. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.

Lynch, MC. 1996. Petroleum. The 1996 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopaedia.

Simon, HJ. 1996. Antibiotics. The 1996 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopaedia

also belong in the 'the good they do' article. (in fact, the 3rd, 4th and 5th refs belong exclusively to the article) other than that, i have no comments or complaints. i like what you did and thanks for adding all those links! (i'm incredibly lazy when it comes to doing those...)

Getting there...

Next question: while discussing smelly feet and body odour, you have this sentence:

"And even if it weren't for the cool school, it would be somewhat discomfiting to be squished into a bus with someone plagued with this at the end of the day."

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at with the 'cool school' bit. Are you saying that schools are kept cool enough for the smells not to be a problem, or something else?



Danny B.

i was referring to microbial misery conditions (acne, halitosis etc) as being thoroughly unacceptable if a person is to be cool... maybe the sentence should be rephrased...

Aha! Gotcha

And after my disastrous day over at the MuG (are you *sure* you don't play the bass?) I don't think you need to feel sheepish!

danny, here is an honest confession - the only song i know the bassline for (and can play) is 'stand by me'. while i am wonderful at *programming* basslines and stuff on a computer, i cannot get one to *move* anywhere in real life so yeah, i'm pretty sure i don't play bass. i *do* play acoustic guitar, however, so at least you got the instrument family right

So who on earth was I thinking of..?

Oh well, never mind!

I've now finished my first bash through 'The Harm...' (A1026361) I've also split off the last section into a new article, as you suggested. It's at A1062613, but it hasn't been edited yet.

As always, any comments, let me know

And I've now done the 'Good or Bad' article as well (A1062613).

I'll have another look through 'The Good...' and get it sent back to the editors asap. If you've no complaints on the other two, I'll let the editors know that they're to be added to the Edited Guide as well

Good stuff - I've enjoyed editing these!

hi danny,

if you want to put the 'good or bad' at the end of 'bad', that's also ok by me since it would make sense as well. (i mean, you talk about the microbes being 'bad', and then say, are they really bad 'bad'?) but if you want to give it a whole article space to itself, that's also fine by me although if you want to split it and all, then the ref:

Falkow, S. 1998. Who Speaks for the Microbes? Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol. 4 (3)

belongs to the 'good and bad'. other than that, i'm pretty happy with what you've done to the articles

You'll be pleased to know that I've finally got round to submitting 'The Good...' to the Editors

I've also sent a note to let them know that the others are following. I'm going to keep the three articles - if you've written that much, you deserve three Edited Entries

And thanks for hanging around the MuG membership thread and doing a bit of 'meet and greet' If you'd be interested in helping out on a more 'official' basis (i.e. updating the membership page, telling people where the badge is etc.) let me know and I can send you the username and password for the Guild. If not, don't worry - I'm sure I can cope all on my own

thanks!

i wouldn't mind helping out, of course - although i'm never online on weekends, and do not claim to be more coherent than you on thursdays! the mug's a good place to find others who share one's musical er, inabilities, after all...

Front page! And Editor's Choice too



Nice work!

and thank *you* for editing it!

Well, after a bit of editor-prodding, the other two articles finally made the front page

Thanks again for dropping by the MuG membership thread to let people know they're not being ignored I notice your email address is on you Personal Space, so I'll drop you a note with the MuG username and password. No obligation, but if you want to do the 'official' "hello and here's the badge" bit (as well as updating the membership list...) then please do. And if there are any other bits of the Guild you feel could use a little work, feel free



Danny B.