Lauren Leiker Evolution Course 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...

    When I first think of the term fitness, my head goes straight to people working out at the gym, really pumping some iron, or going on a really long run. However, from attending this week’s lecture, it completely changed my thought process as I received more insight on the evolutionary/biology perspective on fitness. Fitness in biology is not how strong and powerful one is, but instead, it is actually the process of how phenotypes can be passed onto the next generation through the gene pool. Fitness can be measured in a natural population by measuring an organism’s reproductive success, so basically just by keeping track of how many offspring an organism is able to reproduce. Therefore, an organism would be considered biologically fit if it were to produce a greater number of offspring. One example I have in mind is the bullfrog species. In order to quantify fitness, I would have to look at different mutations across the species, their environment, predators also ...

1. I picked Darwin's idea of descent with modification: species change through time (microevolution). 2. From reading an article from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, I gathered evidence for Darwin’s idea of species changing throughout time. Based off the reading, I learned more about how mutations within species happen by chance and not all adaptations allow for a species to have a better chance for survival. The survival of a species is not random, instead it heavily depends on their inherited traits. Similar to what we are being taught in class, not all mutations or adaptations are necessarily “better” for species survival rate. Genetic variations occur when organisms produce more offspring than that of which can possibly survive, therefore, only the offspring that can adjust to the environment they are born in, will survive. The ones that are able to survive are the ones that are more likely to pass on the new traits to their offspring, which ultimately create...

I would explain evolution as a adaptions or changes that develop over different periods of generations. I find evolution very hard to study since we are not given a constant set of changes to look for. I always find myself arguing with the phrase, “survival of the fittest”, because I immediately think species would have to be stronger, faster, and have the ability to overpower those around them. While I do take those qualities into account, I would argue how that shouldn't be the main focus of what evolution truly is. I do believe evolution goes hand in hand with the advancement of species surviving, but the term “fittest” can be interpreted different ways. I think that in some environments animals need to be a certain color or size in order to survive, however, just because one animal is brown and the other is red doesn’t exactly mean one will completely die off, it just depends on if they have the ability to successfully reproduce. Evolution occurs when there are changes in inher...

     My name is Lauren Leiker and I am from Lenexa, Kansas. I am a junior here at K-State majoring in Human Health Biology on the Pre-Med track. Ever since I was a kid, I have always dreamed of working in the medical field. My father's health has also played a huge role in the reason why I want to work in the medical field. My father was diagnosed with a very rare condition called Dermatomyositis about 10 years ago. This is an autoimmune condition in which his immune system mistakenly attacks his muscles and organs. This one disease has progressed and in addition, has triggered various additional autoimmune diseases, like Raynaud's disease. He currently struggles with heart and lung disease as well as kidney failure. My drive to work in the medical field primarily started when my dad's health first began to deteriorate, and I soon came to the conclusion that I wanted to become a doctor to help not only my father but also other people struggling with their health for vario...