Cancer – benefit of routine mammography
NPR had a feature on the risk of over-diagnosing cancer. It turns out that mammography is great at diagnosing small cancers, but it has not affected the overall diagnosis of dangerous cancers. Read here
Interesting recent articles
Nature just published an update on the idea of helminthic therapy that Ben Hanelt discussed in his lecture on the Hygiene Hypothesis: Whipworm Therapy The New York Times Health Blog published this piece on antibiotic prescribing and the link to obesity. Here’s an NPR blog on the fitness consequences of […]
Evolution and Cancer
For next week, in addition to discussing your answer to this week’s writing question, I am going to present the topic of cancer evolution. I will show you how the application of evolutionary theory to cancer evolution, dispersal, and relapse has potential for a future Nobel prize. It will also […]
The list of final projects
Click here for the list of projects that students have claimed for this semester
Aquatic Theory or Spandrels?
Read: Aquatic Theory Gould & Lewontin Writing assignment for 11/20/12: Are sinuses spandrels? If not what are they for? You may do your own research to come up with alternative possibilities not included in the aquatic paper above.
Virulence Evolution
Evolution of virulence Key evolutionary concept: mode of transmission of a parasite or pathogen can affect the evolution of virulence. Key evolutionary concept: public health efforts and hospital characteristics have the capacity to influence the evolution of virulence traits. Vector-borne diseases and virulence Hospital Acquired Infections – are medical workers […]
Bean Lectins
Thee will be no writing assignment for next tuesday, but there will be two required readings. Read this first. The second reading is background information for the lecture: Plant Lectins Our topic for 11/6/12 is the under-appreciated harmful effect from one of humanity’s most commonly encountered foods: legumes. The two […]
Genetic Conflict
Next weeks topic is Genomic Imprinting and Conflict, which relies heavily on insights of David Haig, an evolutionary theorist from Harvard. David Haig writes: “The most intimate human relationship is that between a mother and her unborn young. A fetus obtains all its nutrients and disposes of all of its […]
Nobel Prize for Penicillin
This paragraph from Sir Alexander Fleming’s Nobel prize acceptance speech is perhaps the origin of the “radical pathogen cure” (Read and colleagues PNAS, 2011): “But I would like to sound one note of warning. Penicillin is to all intents and purposes non-poisonous so there is no need to worry about […]
Evolution and Mountain Sickness – No writing assignment today
Evolution and high altitude populations. This is one of my favorite topics, because it illustrates several evolutionary concepts and gives clues to the role of adaptation to novel environments in humans… Handout for Tuesday’s lecture: High Altitude Cultures Optional (and very brief) reading: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/92910801.html There is no writing project due […]
