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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by PDH (talk | contribs) at 05:49, 7 December 2004. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article seems to be about cell reproduction, not cell growth. - Nunh-huh 06:42, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I agree. It is a long standing tradition (particularly in some fields of biology such as Develomental biology) for people to use the phrase "cell growth" when, in fact, it might be better to say "cell reproduction". In practical terms, the phrase "cell growth" seems to be a good shorthand to the idea of "growth in cell numbers by means of cell reproduction".
Within biology, the term "cell reproduction" is almost never used by working biologists. (data: in the Entrez search engine has ZERO occurrences of "cell reproduction" and over 36,000 occurrences of "cell growth".) I think biologists want to use the word "reproduction" in the context of the reproduction of multicellular organisms, not cells. In biology textbooks (see: the searchable Entrez Bookshelf), the term "cell reproduction" is used as I have used it in the "cell growth" article, as a way to clearly (pendantically) refer to processes that working biologists prefer to refer to using the jargonistic phrase "cell growth".
I am not sure how Wikipedia deals with these situations. Does information go under the most commonly used name or under the most technically correct name? With good re-direction it probably does not matter. I was reluctant to create an article called "cell reproduction" because working biologists do not use that phrase. Since biology students and the interested public might search Wikipedia for "cell reproduction" we should either create an article for it or re-direct it to "cell growth". JWSchmidt 14:59, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
My understanding is that we go with "most common term", not most correct. So probably a redirect from cell reproduction would suffice. Still, it seems a shame that we have so little information on actual cell growth (the greater part of the so-called "growth cycle") yet apparently the part least studied or least known. The titling thing wouldn't be disconcerting if there were less concentration on the "M phase" and at least a little information on G1, S, and G2 phases of the cycle. - Nunh-huh 17:21, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Another term used is cell proliferation.
I agree that there should be a section on how cells regulate their size. Possible topics:
JWSchmidt 17:57, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)jk;ljhl;j;;jkl;

Cells may also grow, this is the case in plant development, cells divide in the meristems and then expand (grow) through development of a number of organelles (like the vaculoe). Cells may also increase volume by endomitosis, making the nuclei large. I'm happy to elaborate in the article, but I'm not sure where it would go- perhaps a section called increasing cell volume--nixie 05:49, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC)