User:Morgan098/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Thermophile

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose this article due to my interest in astrobiology and extremophiles. Thermophiles are a type of extremophile that tolerates high temperatures. This topic is important because understanding unique organisms can lead to various scientific applications. For example, some extremophiles can be helpful in bioremediation. My preliminary impression of the article was that it was short but did have a good amount of references.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

The lead section has a good overview of thermophiles, however it could use some more information and needs more to describe what the reader should expect in the article. The content is related to the topic. It would be beneficial to have more information on scientific applications and the history of the discovery, etc of thermophiles. The article is not bias and the links work and are relevant. However, there are many citations missing. The citations that are presented are reliable and most are peer reviewed scientific papers. The article has no grammatical errors and is easy to understand. The section titled "gene transfer and genetic exchange" might benefit by being simplified for someone without a science background to understand. An applications section could be added, since some information regarding this is in the lead section. Also the information about the requirement of sulfur for most hyperthermophilic archaea should be separated to another section since it does not directly relate to the different classifications. All pictures are cited and both the image and caption relate directly to the material. According to the talk page, this article is of interest to the environment, molecular biology, microbiology, and volcanoes wikiprojects. There is a comment on the talk page regarding some information they thought was missing. For example, how they reproduce, lifespan, do they use heat specially, etc. It also asks if the temperature range for thermophiles is correct as they found different numbers in another source. The temperature range should be further researched and updated if applicable. Overall, the article has a good basis and will benefit from additional information and correct citations. The article has good detail with the information that is provided.