Portal talk:Biology/Proposed

Instructions

If there's an article you'd like to see featured (and note that as per previous discussion, only articles of considerable quality will be accepted), add it to the bottom of the corresponding "proposed queue" (there are queues for selected article, selected picture, and selected biography). The link is given at the bottom of this section. If there are any articles in the proposed queue that you think should not be selected, put them back in the "repository" section, giving a reason in your edit summary.
Once five days have passed without dispute after adding an article to the proposed queue, it moves up to the "agreed queue". Unless very serious reasons can be brought forward, the article is set in stone for being shown on the page when its turn in the queue comes. Updates of the portal content should not be done more frequently than every seven days.
Articles suggested by important current events may be slipped in ahead of the queue, with the queue remaining unchanged.
Proposed queues may be rearranged in any way; agreed queues may be rearranged only in order to create a sensible combination of content. For instance, an article on developmental biology might be paired with an image of a foetus. Such pairs should be marked so to ensure they can be maintained even if one article is postponed due to a current event.

Agreed queue

Main article

Biography

Featured picture

Proposed queue

Main article

Dürer's Rhinoceros - something a little different
History of biology
Flight feather
Immune system
Whale song
Javan Rhinoceros

Biography

August Weismann (GA status pending)

Paul Ehrlich (pending translation)

Featured picture

Proposed themes

Viruses

SA: Virus

A virus (from the Latin virus meaning toxin or poison) is a sub-microscopic infectious agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside a host cell. Virus diseases inflict a heavy illness and economic burden on humans and animals and can devastate agricultural crops. Each viral particle, or virion, consists of genetic material, DNA or RNA, within a protective protein coat called a capsid. Their shape varies from simple helical and icosahedral (polyhedral or near-spherical) forms, to more complex structures with tails or an envelope. Viruses infect cellular forms of life and are grouped into animal, plant and bacterial viruses.

It has been argued whether viruses are living organisms. Some consider them non-living as they do not meet the criteria of the definition of life. For example, unlike most organisms, viruses do not have cells. However, viruses have genes and evolve by natural selection. They have been described as organisms at the edge of life. Viral infections in human as well as animal hosts, usually result in an immune response and disease. Often, a virus is completely eliminated by the immune system. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses, but antiviral drugs have been developed to treat life-threatening infections. Vaccines that produce lifelong immunity can prevent virus infections.

...Archive

Featured biology articles

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SB: Frank Macfarlane Burnet

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet OM, AK, KBE (3 September 1899 – 31 August 1985), usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist best known for his contributions to immunology. Burnet received his M.D. from the University of Melbourne in 1924, and his PhD from the University of London in 1928. He went on to conduct pioneering research on bacteriophages and viruses at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, and served as director of the Institute from 1944 to 1965. His virology research resulted in significant discoveries concerning their nature and replication and their interaction with the immune system.

From the mid-1950s, he worked extensively in immunology and was a major contributor to the theory of clonal selection, which explains how lymphocytes target antigens for destruction. Burnet and Peter Medawar were co-recipients of the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for demonstrating acquired immune tolerance. This research provided the experimental basis for inducing immune tolerance, the platform for developing methods of transplanting solid organs.

Burnet left the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in 1965, he continued to work at the University of Melbourne until his official retirement in 1978. During his working life he wrote 31 books and monographs and more than 500 scientific papers. Burnet played an active role in the development of public policy for the medical sciences in Australia and was a founding member, and later the president, of the Australian Academy of Science. He was the most highly decorated and honoured scientist to have worked in Australia.^[1] For his contributions to Australian science, he was made the first Australian of the Year in 1960, and in 1978 a Knight of the Order of Australia. He was recognised internationally for his achievements: in addition to the Nobel, he received the Lasker Award and the Royal and Copley Medals from the Royal Society, honorary doctorates, and distinguished service honours from the Commonwealth and Japan.