Talk:Frank Macfarlane Burnet

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October 9, 2006 Featured article candidate Promoted
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Assessment comments

this is very silly not up to ur usual standards wiki'

[edit] assessment of the article

Petaholmes, I think this article is in great shape, overall. It does a nice job of explaining the significance of Burnet's work, and the topical structure is solid. The prose becomes a little weaker in the last couple sections, but it has all the important information the hypothetical reader will want.--ragesoss 15:55, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Few comments

While I don't know much about the standards for biography articles, this one looks very good to me - nicely explains the subject's personal history and major contributions.

  • In the early life section, there's a sentence about what books and magazines he read - this is awfully specific information to have without a footnote and as someone unfamiliar with that literature, I'm not sure why those specific titles are relevant.
  • Maybe this is a modern view, but he was both a resident pathologist and a ship's surgeon?
    • By my reading he was just a suregon when he was on the boat.
  • "...although turned out to be another toxin that had caused the children's deaths" - did his work seriously contribute to the resolution of the vaccine problem, or is this mentioned mostly to illustrate how he became interested in immunology?
    • Not as far as I can tell, but it did occupy about a year of his time and it did make his start to think about and experiment in immunology.
  • The immunology section could use some sub-sub-sections; it's a very long block of text otherwise.
    • I don't think this is a problem since all the text is about immunology; plus I can't think of a logical way to subdivide it.
  • There are occasional minor tone issues ("skilled administrator", "dubious distinction", "overcame shyness to become a good public speaker")
    • Fixed except the public speaking bit; overcoming shyness is something most of his bios talk about.
  • Also minor copyedits needed, eg "From the late 1960s and 1970s, he was also vocal in the anti-smoking movement in the 1960s and 1970s", "he was operated on for".
  • Perhaps more could be said on his opinion of molecular biology? Did he change his mind later? Were his comments part of a larger dispute at the time or were they mostly his personal opinions?
    • Personal opinions, have added a bit more.
  • Last sentence has a typo: of->if.
    • I can't spot it.

Opabinia regalis 02:28, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

  • Thanks. --Peta 00:41, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Linkfix Dump

For the meaning behind the madness see User:Edward Z. Yang/LinkFix dump.

================================================================================
LinkFix Dump
Frank Macfarlane Burnet
2006-10-03.19-38-08
================================================================================
12  [[Virologist]] -> [[Virology]]
17  [[Geelong College]] -> [[The Geelong College]]
19  [[H.G. Wells]] -> [[H. G. Wells]]
19  [[Agnostic]] -> [[Agnosticism]]
19  [[Typhoid]] -> [[Typhoid fever]]
21  [[Lister Institute]] -> [[The Lister Institute for Preventative Medicine]]
30  [[Wellcome Foundation]] -> [[Wellcome Trust]]
30  [[Poxvirus]] -> [[Poxviridae]]
35  [[Hematopoietic stem cell]] -> [[Pluripotential hemopoietic stem cell]]
36  [[Autoimmune disease]] -> [[Autoimmunity]]
52  [[Haemolytic anaemia]] -> [[Hemolytic anemia]]
66  [[Lancet]] -> DISAMBIG
75  [[Hahnemann Medical College]] -> [[Drexel University]]
77  [[Commonwealth of Dominica]] -> [[Dominica]]
# DONE

— Edward Z. Yang(Talk) 23:48, 3 October 2006 (UTC)