Student
Sondra Almeida
Mrs. Dewitt
Ap Biology
5/8/13
Survival of the Sickest
Survival of the Sickest is a well written book about myth busting modern day myths. Dr. Sharon Moalem is the author of this book. This book does a really good job in explain how certain diseases that are around today got started. She goes on in the book to describe how truly little modern medicine understands about how to treat these diseases. She describes a new way of thinking about medicine and its evolution.
My favorite chapter is probably Of Microbes and Men because it is really interesting and hard to put down. She uses simple yet efficient syntax and diction which help to get her point across. She explains how all of the diseases we see on a day to day basis now have come from much simpler ones beginning hundreds of years ago. Nothing now is new, every day almost it seems like a doctor, nurse, or grad student comes up with the origin of some disease and a possible cure for it. Dr. Moalem suggests that there is one key microbe responsible for it which is not yet discovered. The evolution explained is not boring at all she finds a way to make it actually fascinating.
Another interesting chapter is the first chapter in the book. It is about a man who training for a marathon. Through his exercising he takes a lot of vitamin and iron supplements. Towards the end of his regiment he starts feeling sick. But he is stubborn and refuses to go to the doctor, he claims he will kick it soon. Finally his wife convinces him to be checked out by a professional. The doctor comes to the conclusion that he will not be able to run the marathon as he previously thought because he has a condition called hemachromatosis which mean he is literally rusting to death from the inside out. It was a non dominant allele brought out by the excessive use of iron supplement and vitamins. The doctors traced this disease all the way back to the black plague in Europe where the people with more Iron were dying at a
Mrs. Dewitt
Ap Biology
5/8/13
Survival of the Sickest
Survival of the Sickest is a well written book about myth busting modern day myths. Dr. Sharon Moalem is the author of this book. This book does a really good job in explain how certain diseases that are around today got started. She goes on in the book to describe how truly little modern medicine understands about how to treat these diseases. She describes a new way of thinking about medicine and its evolution.
My favorite chapter is probably Of Microbes and Men because it is really interesting and hard to put down. She uses simple yet efficient syntax and diction which help to get her point across. She explains how all of the diseases we see on a day to day basis now have come from much simpler ones beginning hundreds of years ago. Nothing now is new, every day almost it seems like a doctor, nurse, or grad student comes up with the origin of some disease and a possible cure for it. Dr. Moalem suggests that there is one key microbe responsible for it which is not yet discovered. The evolution explained is not boring at all she finds a way to make it actually fascinating.
Another interesting chapter is the first chapter in the book. It is about a man who training for a marathon. Through his exercising he takes a lot of vitamin and iron supplements. Towards the end of his regiment he starts feeling sick. But he is stubborn and refuses to go to the doctor, he claims he will kick it soon. Finally his wife convinces him to be checked out by a professional. The doctor comes to the conclusion that he will not be able to run the marathon as he previously thought because he has a condition called hemachromatosis which mean he is literally rusting to death from the inside out. It was a non dominant allele brought out by the excessive use of iron supplement and vitamins. The doctors traced this disease all the way back to the black plague in Europe where the people with more Iron were dying at a