A couple of references on the concept of race and risk of disease:

Final essays are due next week, on tuesday. They will be a maximum of 2 pages, double spaced and they need the following elements:

1) The topic has to be about a disease or illness, or have some relationship to a disease or illness.

2) Discussion of one or more evolutionary hypotheses that relate to a disease (example: thrifty genotype and thrifty phenotype as hypotheses for diabetes.) You will get the most credit for this if you explicitly discuss how natural selection relates to the hypothesis. (Example: Individuals with “thrifty genes” diverted calories into fat and were more insulin resistant, but they survived famine and left more offspring than people without thrifty genes. As a result natural selection favored thrifty genes and they spread throughout the population.

3) You are welcome to write about any of the topics we covered during the half-semester, or any other topic that we did not cover.

4) You are welcome to try to dream up your own hypothesis about any disease.

5) Either way, try to discuss strengths and weaknesses of any hypothesis. If possible, marshall evidence for or against any idea.

6) If you have any trouble or want to ask questions, do not be shy, email me!

Joe

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Joe Alcock

Emergency Physician, Educator, Researcher, interested in the microbiome, evolution, and medicine