Lauren Leiker Evolution Course Blog

      For this blog post, I decided to write about Rachel Carlton Abrams Ted Talk that is over (R)evolutionary Medicine. She first starts her talk explaining a simple prescription that we can help us in our daily lives. That simple prescription revolves around getting into alignment with our evolutionary nature. She states how there is a split between the life and environment that we have evolved to thrive in and the life and environment that majority of us are living in. She begins to worry me with the statement how that for the first time in our country, our children are expected to have shorter life spans due to the exposure to diseases of civilization. You would think with the amount of technology and resources we have nowadays, children would be expected to live longer and healthier lives than their parents. She explains how children will suffer from high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol.       So in order to solve this issu...

     For my blog post this week, I decided to write about the evolutionary perspective on human health and disease. I found a Ted Talk given by Lara Durgavich where she investigates a genetic disorder known as Tay-Sachs disease. She explains how Tay-Sachs disease is when one of the two copies of chromosome 15 has a genetic mutation. Even though Lara herself still has one normal copy of this gene, she states how she is still a carrier, meaning she can pass the mutation onto her children. Luckily, her husband does not carry this mutation and her children turned out healthy.   Lara shows how the perspective of evolutionary medicine examines the how and why of a human’s evolutionary past. She states that our past can leave our bodies vulnerable to different diseases. One central idea that I learned through Lara’s Ted Talk was that you must understand that your health is not only affected by what your body is going through now, but also because of your genetic inheritan...

     One disease of civilization that I find the most interesting is cancer, or more specifically breast cancer. Breast cancer has impacted several of my family members over the years, some of which were able to beat it and survive, and some that weren’t as lucky. I’ve learned through multiple articles from the National Center for Biotechnology Information that the prevention of breast cancer is possible, however, there are also factors that increase the development of breast cancer that we must consider. So it is extremely important to focus on an individuals lifestyle and what they are doing that helps, but also what might hurt their body. There are many lifestyle factors that have been associated with the rise of breast cancer including an individual’s diet, socioeconomic status, height, weight, physical activity, smoking and alcohol use, aging, family history, and stress. All of these factors can increase the chances of an individuals developing breast cancer, but if ...

    The world truly is full of the most amazing and unique organisms that have evolved their traits in order to adapt to their environment. One species that I have always found fascinating is the shoebill stork species. This particular species has evolved from dinosaurs millions of years ago and are also known as Balaeniceps rex, whalehead, and whale-headed stork. The reason I’m so fascinated with this species is because of how brave and almost a little scary looking they are. Shoebill storks are known for having a large amount of patience when trying to catch their prey. Shoebill storks mainly gravitate towards feeding on large prey such as lungfish, snakes, and even crocodiles! Some adaptations that the shoebill storks have are their long toes to help with balance, a nictitating membrane to protect their eyes, and a foot-long bill that helps with their hunting. I have found a few articles pertaining to the adaptive hypotheses that scientists have created while examining...

    Genetic variation can be limited by natural selection as natural selection can alter a species by increasing or decreasing the gene frequencies. Natural selection in population occurs when an organism’s trait has the ability to help a species survive and reproduce. Even though natural selection can decrease the variation within a species, genetic variation cannot be eroded over time as genetic variation is vital for natural selection given that it can only alter the frequency of alleles that are already present in the population. Genetic variation is essential in order to create diverse variations of allele frequencies.      There are a many diverse mechanisms that can explain why genetic variation is maintained in populations including mutations and genetic drift.   Natural selection may limit variation, however, we also have to take into account how mutations will always remain present in populations, given that they occur randomly. Genetic ...

  From taking this class, I feel that one thing I have personally gained some real breakthroughs from, was through the R exercises. Before coming into this course, I didn’t know a single thing about coding and though I am still nowhere near becoming a pro, I’m proud of how far I’ve come with somewhat knowing how to code. I still have many, many questions when it comes to each individual R exercise, but I’ve learned to utilize the class book more often when I’m in need of help and to ask questions during class.   While revisiting my original blog post where I defined evolution, I related evolution as adaptions or changes that develop over different periods of generations. I still do believe that evolution is adaptions continuously developing over time, however, it is not the sole factor in which evolution is driven by. I have to acknowledge the other evolutionary mechanisms that effect how evolution changes across generations. Without even knowing, I believe in my original blog...