Photo: Flickr user lifeontheedge

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Turritopsis nutricula is a jellyfish with a life cycle in which it reverts back to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature. It is the only known animal capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature stage after having reached sexual maturity. It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation. This cycle then repeats, rendering it effectively immortal.

@ 7/21/2007 01:39:00 AM

2 comments:

llywrch said...

The articles linked here led me to confront a common problem on Wikipedia.

The "transdifferation" article mentioned something called "Barrett's metaplasia". Now, for reasons not relevant here, the only time I have heard the name Barrett in relation to a medical condition is the phrase "Barrett's esophagus" -- & Wikipedia's article on the later did not exclude the possibility that it could be identical with the former -- although the jargon in the two articles prevented me from being 100% sure.

Too often, articles in Wikipedia lapse into jargon that only someone familiar with the topic would understand. Instead of explaining the topic, even in a biassed, incomplete manner, the user is confronted with an oblique text. This is what happened for me with both articles involved.

Despite my misgivings, I decided to be bold & create a link at the words "Barrett's esophagus" to the article. Still, I have to wonder if we are failing our users in yet another way.

Not to criticize your post here, Tlogmer, but I felt it was worth sharing. And I suspect you have more readers than I do. :)

Geoff

July 22, 2007 7:27 PM
Ben Yates said...

Well, I still hide the feed count down at the bottom of the sidebar. :P

The encyclopedia of life is going to have a novice-to-expert slider that changes what text is displayed, which is a great idea. Wikipedia is zig-zagging toward a non-software based solution -- a couple articles already have "introduction to" versions.

July 24, 2007 1:53 AM

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