Talk:Barbara McClintock
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McClintock was honored with a commemorative stamp by the United States Postal Service in May 2005 in the series celebrating great american scientists (along with Feynman, who already has this information in his page, Von Neumann and Gibbs who don't). A link is here:
Would anyone want to update the article with this information?
Thanks for pointing that out I'll update the article to include the stamp as soon as I get a chance--nixie 21:20, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
Thanks for the response. If you've a moment, I bet that Von Neumann and Gibbs need similar updates, though Feynman seems to have a dedicated following. I don't feel comfortable enough yet editing well-established pages other than making small grammar or spelling changes, and I don't think I'll have time to read the tutorial more until this weekend.
If you are planning to keep editing, it'd be great if you'd sign up to make an account, that way people can get to know you--nixie 03:09, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
Shouldn't all the dates be linked? Mgiganteus1 02:23, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Picture
Looks like we're using the most elderly picture we could find. Why not one more like this? It was taken at the time that she was actually doing her research. --P3d0 13:08, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
I agree. This current picture is screaming vandalism...
- (Oh come on... the current picture is so sexy...) On a more serious note, I looked and could not find a single picture of her with a verifiable license. Anyone who could find such a picture would be welcome to replace the current one. Raul654 19:51, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
- What about the stamp? JohnRussell 20:00, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
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- Great suggestion, especially since the stamp is not used anywhere in the article and the current elderly picture seems to have copyright issues --Georgeryp 03:00, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
- Did anyone follow through on this? It looks like the American Philosophical Society holds her papers, and the linked image above is on their website. I can contact them to see if they have or can donate a better illustration of McClintock in her prime. --lquilter 23:50, 6 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Vandals
I have this page on my watch list. Did something happen in the news today re McClintock, why the sudden blip in vandalism? David D. (Talk) 19:57, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
- Take a gander at the main page Raul654 20:06, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
- John just clued me into this fact. Can we semi-protect the page? David D. (Talk) 20:11, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
- See user:Raul654/protection Raul654 20:51, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
- John just clued me into this fact. Can we semi-protect the page? David D. (Talk) 20:11, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
The quote from source #26 is nowhere to be found in the linked document... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.92.23.243 (talk) 18:02, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] archives
I found another major set of McClintock's papers at the APS, added that one, and pulled out that one and the NLM into a slightly separate section. They're not exactly the same kind of "Further reading" as all the other references in the bibliography because although one can read the indexes online, one would have to go to the collection to do further reading. Perhaps there are other ideas/opinions about formatting, however? --lquilter 00:08, 7 October 2007 (UTC)
hi —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.9.182.167 (talk) 23:17, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] How to mention her Nobel Prize
I find it odd that an article about a Nobel Laureate would not mention the prize in the first line. In this case, it wasn't mentioned in the first paragraph at all! Adding to the weirdness of this text is the outlining: the second paragraph is the entire content of a subheading, "Biography"! Of course, the entire article is a biography of her, including the lead paragraph, which introduces her scientific career and ends with a distinction she received in 1944. Now, I certainly noticed that the Nobel was mentioned in the *infobox*, but how perverse it is to put it there and not in the lead. After all, after her work itself, the Nobel is the most noteworthy thing about her.
On May 6, I added the Nobel Prize the the opening sentence. I didn't even scroll down to the "Biography" paragraph.
PDH has undone my edit. They're somebody who has contributed heavily to this article in the past, but not since May 2007. Now they jump in with a defamatory remark: "missed vandalism?" Not only defamatory, but obtuse: what the hell is "missed" supposed to mean, that PDH didn't notice something for a couple of days? You can tell by looking at PDH's user page that they're the type that enjoy's giving offense.
I can well expect that people will disagree with my views on this. But if you can't say why your way is better, addressing the arguments I've made, don't muck things up. Hurmata (talk) 11:26, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
Well, now that I moved from comparing recent versions to looking at the last version, I see that PDH can at least claim a "Bravo!" for abolishing the spurious "Biography" heading. Now, if they would opt to communicate plainly what their objections to this and that are. Hurmata (talk) 11:53, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
- I agree that mentioning the Nobel in the opening sentence is a good thing. This article needs work, in my opinion, so please think about further improvements. PDH may have thought that one paragraph (the one containing the word 'unshared') had been deleted by a vandal some time ago, and no-one had seen it. I doubt he meant 'vandal' to refer to you. (In the interest of good relations, you might consider removing your critical comment about PDH that you left above). The article could certainly use a better picture. EdJohnston (talk) 13:25, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
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- As a point of social responsibility, people need to be more thoughtful about what that write. "Missed vandalism?" is so stripped down grammatically that it can't be interpreted with certainty (*who* missed *what* vandalism?). But on the other hand, it readily lends itself to misunderstandings. The description appears right before a deletion in the opening sentence, so any reasonable person would link these two. The deleted material is *my* edit. Ergo, my indignation has not lessened.
- An appeal to fortify good relations ought to be directed to *all* parties in a dispute. Aside from that, I might consider removing a critical comment of mine if it were possible to remove the critical comment that prompted it and the person behind *that* comment were to take advantage of the possibility. Hurmata (talk) 06:08, 12 May 2008 (UTC)
- As a point of social responsibility, people need to be more thoughtful about what that write. "Missed vandalism?" is so stripped down grammatically that it can't be interpreted with certainty (*who* missed *what* vandalism?). But on the other hand, it readily lends itself to misunderstandings. The description appears right before a deletion in the opening sentence, so any reasonable person would link these two. The deleted material is *my* edit. Ergo, my indignation has not lessened.
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- The construction of the first three or so paragraphs seems to follow a narrative strategy that is benign, but quirkily inappropriate for this, an encyclopedia article. The strategy seems to be to create a storytelling event, with creation of dramatic tension as to what magnitude of glory the subject attained. But this is not a book nor a magazine essay. Imagine postponing until the fourth paragraph George Washington's service as commander of the rebel army and first president of the new nation!
[edit] "demonstrated demonstrated"
In the latest second paragraph there is this continuous passage: "became well understood in the 1960s and 1970s, as researchers demonstrated the mechanisms of genetic change and genetic regulation that she had demonstrated in her maize research in the 1940s and 1950s". Well, this makes sense and is conceivably apt, but much more likely is that the close repetitions of the word "demonstrated" are *not* apt. Someone familiar with the evolution of this article, or with the history of the reception of McClintock's work, should fix this. I expect the correct statement is along the lines of "replicated the mechanisms ... she had demonstrated", "replicated the demonstration ... she had achieved", etc. Hurmata (talk) 11:53, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Lead on a new photo
Following up on EdJohnston's observation yesterday, above, http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/LL/B/B/Q/Q/_/llbbqq.jpg&imgrefurl=http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/LL/Views/Exhibit/visuals/missouri.html&h=459&w=326&sz=86&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=rtyXF1EGgn_rsM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=91&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522barbara%2Bmcclintock%2522%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den I just searched the Web with Google Images —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hurmata (talk • contribs) 10:00, 9 May 2008 (UTC)