Chapter 9 - Doctor Darwin

Notes for Evolution - The Triumph of an Idea - Chapter 9

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or back to Chapter 8 or ahead to Chapter 10

General guide on these review questions here

Chapter 9 - Doctor Darwin - Disease in the Age of Evolutionary Medicine

PBS Website Link

Objectives:

a) Apply coevolutionary concepts to the situation of avoiding human disease

b) Explore recent progress in unravelling the origins of HIV and its implications

c) Consider how and why the virulence of disease organisms varies from both the disease organism's and human's evolutionary perspective

Introduction

Featured Scientist: Beatrice Hahn
source of image

Links: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

I. Introduction

Key Terms: drug-resistant strains

RQ Ev-9.1: What particular situations make Russian prisons places where drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis can thrive?

II. The Triumph of Parasites

RQ Ev-9.2: What challenges does a parasite face in order to become and remain successful?

III. The End of a Panacea

RQ Ev-9.3: What conflicting issues are involved in overcoming antibiotic resistance problems?

IV. AIDS: Evolution Day by Day

RQ Ev-9.4: How is the HIV virus coevolving with humans?

V. In Search of the Origin of AIDS

RQ Ev-9.5: What do the most recent molecular phylogenies by Beatrice Hahn and co-workers suggest about the origin of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in humans?

Links up to about 2001, including the "polio vaccine" debate: 1 - 2 - 3 (pdf) - 4 - 5

VI. Saved by the Black Death?

RQ Ev-9.6: How could the devastating bubonic plague, suffered mostly by Europeans, have led to a possible natural protection from HIV infection?

VII. Plague Tamers

RQ Ev-9.7: Describe the notion of "domesticating" disease organisms.

Click link to return to Biology 409 Schedule
or back to Chapter 8 or ahead to Chapter 10