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Dr. Moalem's Survival Of The Sickest

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Dr. Moalem’s Survival of the Sickest provides insight into the biology of evolution and its connections to various diseases, whether it be a mild flu or stage 4 lung cancer. The book discloses the astonishing fact that every organism is affecting the development of another organism, or as he puts it, “The bacteria and viruses and parasites that cause disease in us have affected our evolution as we have adapted in ways to cope with their effects.” (Moalem XV) Another frequently mentioned topic in Survival of the Sickest is natural selection. Natural selection is most famously known through Charles Darwin, in which Christ’s College Cambridge states, “Evolutionary change comes through the production of variation in each generation and different …show more content…

Iron carries oxygen from our lungs through the bloodstream and releases it in the body where it’s needed. Iron is built into the enzymes that do most of the chemical heavy lifting in our bodies, where it helps us to detoxify poisons and to convert sugars into energy.” Despite being a vital mineral, too much of anything can be detrimental for the human body; therefore, introducing …show more content…

Additionally, the book modified my judgments of inheritance. Many research topics can stem out of these inherited defects with beneficial advantages for survival such as taking a part of the G6PD- deficiency gene to cure malaria. Furthermore, studying defects like hemochromatosis, diabetes, or favism may be crucial to taking a leap (and hopefully, landing) in the scientific and medical community. And we end on this quote from Dr. Sharon Moalem himself which very accurately sums up my comprehension of evolution from this book, “If you’ve come this far on our journey across the evolutionary landscape, you’ve probably gathered a good sense of the interconnectedness of — well, just about everything. Out genetic makeup has been adapting in response to where we live and what the weather’s like. The food we eat has evolved to cope with the organisms that eat it, and we’ve evolved to cope with that. We’ve looked at the way we’ve evolved to resist or manage the threat posed by specific infectious diseases, like malaria… At the end of the day, every living thing — bacteria, protozoa, lions, tigers, bears, and your baby brother- shares two hardwired imperatives: Survive.

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Inheritance by Dr. Sharon Moalem is an exceptional book. Dr. Moalem’s goal for writing this book is to convey a new idea of genetics and inheritance to the reader. In middle school and high school we were taught that our genetics comes from our parents and that they are fixed throughout our lifetime, but Dr. Sharon Moalem brings the idea that the environment may alter them. He states that the food we eat and the trauma we endure during life can imprint onto our genes. Dr. Moalem works with rare genetic disorders where he accumulates his knowledge from research to help treat his patients with changing some environmental factors in their lives.

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Dr. Moalem’s unique view on disease and humanity’s complex relationship with it inspired many questions in the mind of the reader. He theorizes that diseases passed on genetically remained in the gene pool because they may have provided advantages to our ancestors, and this theory casts a new light and creates a new perspective on such diseases. The diseases discussed in the book, such as hemochromatosis, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia, would ordinarily be considered harmful. However, the author explains that under different circumstance, these illnesses might have been viewed as beneficial instead, and that these benefits are worth

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Readers not only learn why microbes emerge at these particular stages in human civilization and how they cause lethal infections, diseases, and pandemics, but also how microbes, with their dynamic interactions with humans, impact and shape human life. In addition, Crawford tracks human progress towards understanding the cause of communicable diseases and fighting against the disease-causing microbes with treatments and preventions, which includes antibiotics and vaccinations. In the final chapter of Deadly Companions, Crawford outlines our current situation with evolving pathogenic microbes despite the interference from modern advancement and knowledge. These killer microbes continue to exploit society; especially with poverty, travel, and drug behavior providing opportunities for our deadly companions to

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The book Survival of the Sickest was written by Sharon Moalem, an evolutionary biologist and neurogeneticist. Dr. Moalem earned his PhD is Human Physiology, specializing in neurogenetics, from the University of Toronto. He earned his MD at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Moalem is the author of three books: Survival of the Sickest, How Sex Works, and Inheritance. Dr. Moalem’s research emphasized bringing together evolution, genetics, and modern medicine to revolutionize how we understand and treat diseases.

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With that being said extreme excess of these foods can cause iron toxicity which can leave to injury to your liver, shock, blood in your bowel, and acidosis. Foods such as enriched cereals also contain a good amount of iron so excess of cereal can also cause these issues. Many people most develop severe iron toxicity due to iron supplements rather than excess of iron enriched

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in another scenario he examines the main stereotypical factors that is association with microbes in our body and how media and news headline tend to examine illness and microbes from a fear standpoint without examining the scientific aspect behind the development and prevention of such microbes in the first

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Biology, the study of life and living organisms, is complex and encompasses a multitude of theories and ideas. In AP Biology, the first unit covered was evolution. Chapters 29, 31, 39, 40, 41, 42, and 43 in the textbook, Campbell’s Biology in Focus, not only discusses the four main ideas of biology: evolution, energy, information, and systems, but it also gives examples of each in order to help guide the reader’s understanding of the concepts. The first big idea of AP Biology is: “the process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.” Chapter 39 in the textbook encompasses this main idea through discussing natural selection and genetic diversity.

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One of the concluding sentences that Dr. Sharon Moalem directs toward her audience is, “[...] Our relationship with disease is often much more complex than we may have previously realized.” “Survival of the Sickest” delves into the theme of the way inheritance and genetic codes in our bloodlines allows fatal diseases to enter our body and the reasons for this happening. The author discusses various diseases and their origin, and includes facts as to how this disease is able to affect modern life. She suggests that said modern diseases played a necessary part in the survival and selection of those before us in our history.

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The topics that he mentions involve things such as genetic manipulation as well as cloning. He begins by mentioning how this has been simply used for the growth of plants and crops, but he questions where this is potentially leading and how the future of the environment could potentially be destroyed in many ways. He makes a strong argument about this by saying, "But by doing these things, we are changing the genetic makeup, and do we really know what the long-term impact will be on the species of plants, on the soil, on the environment? There are obvious commercial benefits, but how do we judge what is really useful?" (133).

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The medical world has changed rapidly over the past few decades. We have solutions to diseases that weren’t even diagnosable before. Although we have tried our best to destroy illness, some diseases have been around since the beginning of time and are incurable. An example of this type of disease is Malaria. We’ve seen symptoms of malaria since The Ancient Egyptian ( around 1500 bc ) and The Ancient Greek times (around 413 B.C ).

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Typically, “when your body detects that it has sufficient iron in the blood, it reduces the amount of iron absorbed by your

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Charles Darwin was a 19th century English naturalist. Darwin is commonly known for his study of Galapagos finches. He went to the Galapagos islands and noticed that the finches on each island had different beaks than the last. This research led to his theory of evolution, and his book On the Origin of Species. He later continued his research and wrote the book The Descent of Man.

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Therefore, if two parents are carriers of a certain gene that will disable their child, they can modify that gene to make a child that will not have that disability. As well as some parents will have designer babies to save another child they already have with a certain disease. In this method, parents will choose their child’s blood type and such in order for them to match that other diseased child and potentially give them their blood, marrow, and even organs. Genetically modifying a child’s chance of disease ensures that a child may live a life without potential disease and disability that they may have been more prone to had their parents’ not used this method. This also ensures a healthy life for a child that had a greater potential of having a medical condition due to their parents being carriers of that particular gene.

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Evolution is the development and change within heritable traits of different populations over generations. Over the years, humans have begun to invent things and change around their environment (the world) to suit their needs. With this is mind, we humans have not been paying attention to how these changes are affecting our evolution as a species. We are cheating natural selection with the design of medicines and medical procedures that allow us to live longer.

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According to Charles Darwin, the advocate of evolution, evolution processes, including the beginning of the universe, occurred accidentally, meaning that everything we see and we have today is an enormous accident. All the naturally occurring incidents are merely the results of accidents, with nearly no special meaning. Naturalists as a result further interpret that lives of human beings serve the same purpose as their origins—human beings are to no avail. The idea of naturalism can be illustrated by one simple example.

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