Introduction

1. What is the "big" question the book will attempt to answer?

The question that the book addresses is "why would evolution, which is supposed to
filter out adverse traits and pass down helpful genes, lead potentially harmful genes
to recur among descendants."

Chapter I

2. The author points out many ways in which iron impacts life.
Identify/Describe at least five.

a. Iron almost counters the effect of antibiotic in a petridish where bacteria grow,
leading the massive bacteria growth as iron is an essential nutrient for them.

b. Infectious materials need iron to enter a human body. Without iron, it is hard for
them to infect us.

c. The lack of iron in body causes anemia, which frequently occurs among women
who go through a period every month.

d. The body that always feels that it requires more iron suffers from
Hemochromatosis, an inheritable disease that probably has persisted due to the
Black Plaque--since it was an infectious disease that needed iron to prevail, the
hemochromatosis patients were able to survive and pass down the gene.

e. Dumping billions of tons of iron into the ocean will counter the effects of the green
house effect as iron will stiumulate the massive plant growth.

3. In the context of this chapter, explain the author's reference to Bruce

Lee and to the barber pole.

Bruce Lee has the immune system that carries iron-deficient macrophages.
Since iron takes a role in nourishing bacteria, normal macrophages that contain iron
in them are often targeted and taken over by infectious materials; however, those
devoid of iron such as Bruce Lee's are better at killing infectious ones.

Barber poles are a symbol for bloodletting. The brass bowl at the top
represented the bowl where leeches were kept. The one at the bottom represented
the bowl for collecting blood. And the red and white spirals have their origins in the
medieval practice of hanging bandages.

Chapter II

4. Distinguish between each of the three types of diabetes.

There are three types--Type 1, Type 2, and gestational diabetes

Type1 usually occurs among young people. Among these people, the body's defense
system incorrectly marks 'invaders' and destroy them--those invaders are cells in the
pancrease responsible for insulin production.
In Type 2 diabetes, the level of insulin production is too low or other tissues in the
body are resistant to it, leading to the failure of absorption of blood sugar and
resulting in high level of sugar in blood.

Finally, gestational diabetes occurs among pregnant women, which often leads to a
condition in the new born called macrosomia--really chubby baby.

5. What did the ice cores of 1989 reveal about the Younger Days?

The ice cores revealed that the Younger Dryas ended in three years, meaning ice age
to no ice age. More interestingly, the ice cores revealed that the onset of the Younger
Dryas took just a decade.

6. Describe the body's "arsenal of natural defenses" against cold.

There are several ways to defend against cold. Shivering is one; it allows the body to
produce heat. In addition, blood vessel constriction directs blood to major organs that
are vitial for survival. Moreover, the body reacts to cold by burning what's called
brown fats that burn 70% more than normal fats, thereby producing more heat.
Lastly, people urinate more in cold days, leading the body to become hypertonic.

7. Describe the connection between Rana Sylvatica and diabetes

The wood frog called Rana Sylvatica is an interesting species. It has a special ability;
instead of hibernating during winters, it lets its body completely forzen and revives in
springs. When a scientist dissected its frozen body, the sugar concentration of its
body was abnormally high, which explains why blood did not freeze. Just like the sea
water would not freeze easily. This is how this species sustains its life--by suffering
from "diabetes."

8. In Chapters I and II several inherited disorders were discussed. Create

and complete a chart with the following information: Disease/Disorder,
Symptoms, Evolutionary Advantage.

Hemochromatosis

symptoms: liver failure, heart failure, diabetes, infertility, cancer

Evoluionary advantage: it allows people who suffer from this disease to survive the
Black Plaque.

Diabetes

symptoms: rapid dehydration, coma, blindness, heart disease, stroke, and vascular
disease.

Evolutionary advantage: it enables people to survive the Ice Age as the high level
sugar in blood prevented the blood clotting due to extreme coldness.

Chapter III

9. Why do we need Vitamin D? Cholesterol? Folic acid?

Vitiamin D is an essential component of our body. It fosters the growth of healthy
bones in children and their maintenance in adults. Cholesterol is intergral in making
and maintaining our cell membranes. It helps the brain to send messages and the
immune system to protect us from cancer and other harmful diseases. Folic acid
helps the body to replicate DNA when cells divide. Thus, it is extremely important for
a fetus growing.

10. Briefly describe the connection between the two concepts:

a. tanning beds; birth defects

Tanning means sunlight. Ultraviolet rays destroy folic acids. Since folic acids are in
chare of helping replicate DNA, they are very important for the fetus growth. With
inadequate amounts of folic acids, birth defects might occur.

b. sunglasses; sun burn.

With sunglasses, much less sunglight reaches the optic nerve, much less melanocyte-
stimulating hormone is released, much less melanin is produced--and much more
surnburn results.

c. hypertension; slave trade

It has been observed that hypertension occurs twice as frequently in African

Americans as in the rest of US population. But, Africans in Africa do not have the
same rate of hypertension as African Americans. Slave trade--those Africans in slave
ships were under horrible conditions without adequate amount of water. It is possible
that those with a natural propensity to retain high levels of salt had a better chance
to survive because high salt concentration helped retain more water in body.

d. Asian flush; drinking water

Ancient asian people used to purify water through boiling; meanwhile, ancient
Europeans did it through fermentation which produced alcohol. Therefore, the latter
have been used to alcohol as they had a plenty of enzymes that break down alcohol.
Asians flush because they lack such enzymes.

e. skull shpae; climate

Skull shape may have evolved according to the storage and release of heat
depending on climates.

f. body hair; malaria

People who have lots of hair in arms and legs are probably descendants of those who
lived in areas where malaria was pandemic. Extra hair in arms and legs prevented
the infection from mosquitoes.

11. What's so fishy about the Inuits' skin color?

Why they still retain dark skin color? It is because they eat fish, which contains lots of
vitamin D. Therefore, their skin color did not have to change to white because they
always have enough amounts of vitamin D.

12. Explain the good and bad of ApoE4

The ApoE4 gene keeps the blood full of cholesterol even though there is not enough
sunlihgt in a northern climate to convert it to VD. As cholesterol builds up, it attaches
to the walls of arteries. It may result in a blockage that causes a heart attack or a
stroke.

Chapter IV

13. Explain the role of G6PD

It protects cellular integrity, mopping up chemical elements that would otherwise

destroy the cell. Without G6PD, any chemical that produces free radicals can wreak
havoc on red blood cells.

14. Briefly describe the connection between the two concepts:

a. European clover; Australian sheep bredding crisis of the 1940s.

European clover produces phytoestrogen as its defense mechanism, agaisnt its

grazing predators. When animals eat too much of phytoestrogen, the overload of this
estrogenlike compounds wreak havoc on their reproductive capability

b. Capsaicin; birds and mammals

Capsaicin is poisonous to mammals but not to birds. This shows how smart Mother
Nature is. When mammals such as rodents eat capsaicin, they break the seeds;
therefore, capsaicin evoloved in a way to prevent mammals from eating it. However,
birds eat capsaicin but seeds are not digested, spreading them along the way.

c. Malaria; air conditioning

It has been believed that malaria is caused by warm "bad air." Therefore, a scientist
in the 19th century put an air conditioner that cools the hospital. Anyhow, air-
conditioning allows people who live in malarial parts of the world to stay inside with
their doors closed and windows shut, which helps to protect them from infected
mosquitoes.

d. favism; fava beans

It has been discovered that people with favism were living in areas where fava beans
were largely cultivated. Fava beans consumption makes the blood cells of non-G6PD
deficient people a less hospitable place for malarial parasites.

15. Explain the following statement found on pg 87: "Life is such a

compromise."

Celery produces more poisons in its body as a defense mechanism against predators.
When an organic celery farmer does not put synthetic pesticide, there will be more
amounts of poison stored in celery when we eat it; however, with pesticide (poison)
sprayed, there will be less poison in celery. Life is a compromise.

Chapter V

16. Complete Parasite Chart

I could not do it because there was no chart in the back

17+18

Dicrocoelium Dentriticum is a worm that lives in the livers of sheep. It gets released
by dungs of sheeps. Then it is carreid by snails, then eaten by ants. It then
manipulates ant's behaviors by infecting its brain. Ants do suicidal behaviors,
hanging on the blade of grass and waiting for to get eaten by sheep.

T.gondii is a parasite that can only reproduce in cats' bodies. After this parasite is
released through cats' droppings, mice might eat them. Once it gets inside the
mouse's body, it manipulates its host, leading it to be drawn by the scent of cat's
urine. As a result, a cat eats that mouse, and this is how T.gondii gets back to cats'
bodies.

People sneeze because of a cold virus that manipulates them to so. As they sneeze,
the virus comes out of its body, infecting other people. This is how a cold virus is
beging transferred from one person to another.

19. What is our advantage in the survive-and-produce race?

The fact that humanity is intelligent enough to manipulate back parasites and
microbes as we feel like to do. Mice are drawn to cats due to the manipulation of
parasites. Grasshoppers do suicidal behaviors for the benefit of their parasites.
Humans are constantly developing ways to defend themselves against parasites,
thereby having a huge advantage over other hosts.

Chapter VI

20. Briefly discuss the following terms/scientiests:

a. Jenner

He was a country doctor in England who had the first vaccine. This vaccine is the
form of cowpox as a future defense against smallpox.

b. Vaccine

The word comes from the Latin word for cow, vacca, and the Latin name for cowpox,
vaccinia. It usually resembles the structure of a infectious material that it tries to
prevent in the future.

c. Antibodies

The substances from our immune system that mark the infectious particles and
ultimately kill them. There are countless types of antibodies produced in our bodies.
d. B-cells

They are the basic building blkcs of antibodies.

e. "junk DNA"

Only 3 percent of DNA is active in coding protiens. The rest of 97%, called junk DNA,
does not code for cellular production.

f. Larmarck

He was a French thinker and student of nature who popularized his own evolutoin
theory, the most famous of which is a theory of inherited acquired traits.

g. McClintlock

She is known as the Emily Dickinson of genetics. She spent her entire life studying
and researching on what is known as jumping genes.

h. Retroviruses

Viruses that enable DNA strands to be copied from RNA strands. They are responsible
for AIDS.

21. What is the Weissman barrier?

It distinguishes between somatic cells and germ cells. The theory says that a
mutation that occurs on the somatic side of the barrier cannot move over to the germ
side.

22. Make connections between the following terms

a. Transposons; viruses; evolution

McClintlock's disvoery, jumping genes are called transposons. They coevolve with
virus, leading to coevolution.

b. sunspots; flu epidemics

Sunspots explode, releasing the strong radiation every 11 years. As the intensity of
radiation increases in a certain year, the flue epidemics also increased due to the
mutations created by the radiation.

23. Humans have about 25,000 genes and more than a million different
antibodies. How is this possible?

There are more than 100,000 different antibodies present in our bodies. But, the
number of genes only amounts to 25,000. This means that genes are able to change
themselves to serve their functions.

24. What is a persisting virus?

Persisting viruses are the viruses that have migrated into our genome over millions of
years and may have become our partners in evolution.

25. Make connections between the following terms

a. vitamin supplement; agouti mice

When fat yellow mice normally fed with necessary nutrients mate each other, they
produce the similar-looking offspring; however, when they are fed with vitamins in
addition to necessary nutrients, they produce thin brown babies.

b. Snakes; long-tailed lizards

One species of lizard is born with a long tail and large body or a small tail and small
body depending on one thing only--whether their mother smelled a lizard-eating
snake while pregnant.

c. Barker hypothesis; fathers who smoke

Barker hypothesis states that for example, fetuses that experience poor nutrition
develop thrifty metabolisms that are much more efficient at hoarding energy. Sons of
fathers who smoke are more likely to get fat because smoking indicates poor
nutrition.

26. Epigenesis may be partially responsible for the childhood epidemic of

obesity. Explain.

The junk food that fills so many American diets is high in calories but low in nutrition
level. If a newly pregnant woman spends the first weeks of her pregnancy eating a
typical junk-food diet, the embryo may receive signals that it is going to be born into
a harsh environment and the embryo develops a mechanism that conserves as much
calories from food. That's why kids born to that mother will likely be obese because
with abundant foods, that conservation mechanism only adds calories to bodies.
27. "Good times mean more boys. Tough times mean more girls." Explain.

It means that boys have been preferred in history because of the patriarchal society
the humanity lives in,

30. Identify the 5 lines of cancer defense

There are specific genes responsible for tumor suppression. There are genes
responsible for creating specialized cancer hunters programmed to seek and destroy
cancer cells. There are genes responsbile for repairing the genes that fight cancer.
Apoptosis, or programmed cell death is a check point for cancer growth, as well as
the Hayflick limit.