Dear Modelers,
To my opinion the primary concern in this matter
should be :Which is the biologically more correct expression ?. As an
experimentalist I remember double logs only as a trick to clean up messy
data. I am sure a licensed mathematician can achieve better goals than that
but the advantage of
dlny/dlnx
over
(dx/dy)
is not clear to me at present (because of ignorance ?).
One thing we should keep in mind is that (dx/dy) is constant only
over a very small range. Drastic changes at one point in a pathway will
soon induce changes at other steps, influencing in turn the overall rate of
the entire pathway. Therefore (dx/dy) for the step under study will change
depending on what happens elsewhere in the pathway. Is this better
expressed using dlny/dlnx ?. If so, we should go for it. If not, are there
any other scientific arguments for or against ?. That should be the main
point; Convincing the "general audience" is a different concern.
Benno ter Kuile
