Lauren Leiker Evolution Course Blog

  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...

    This week I chose to blog about a TED Talk given by Tim Spector who is a Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and the Founder of TwinsUK. In his talk, he engages in the idea of how environmental factors play into how our genes shape our health and identity. Spector brought up a very interesting experiment he’s been working on and it was about how if ones grandparents smoked cigarettes at an early age, then it was more likely for them to produce children and grandchildren who would suffer from asthma. I found this actually related to my family because both my grandparents have smoked since they were in their early high school days. Back then, I suppose it was just a common thing to do at their school. However, I never put two-and-two together when my brother and I developed asthma back when we were just little kids. I soon grew out of it after a couple years, however, my brother still suffers from asthma to this day. He always carries a back up inhaler incase he finds him...