1. Enter your summary of an Evolutionary Paradigm:

2. Dr. Ewald predicted that the ebola outbreak in Zaire would be a difficult infection to control and could have a human killing potential in the thousands.

3. George Williams and Randolph Nesse collaborated on developing an evolutionary medicine perspective and it all came together in their 1991 book entitled Evolutionary Medicine.

4. Nesse and Williams define Darwinian medicine as:

What does the author say is the evolutionary purpose of the symptoms for the following biological conditions? Try to state you answers in a single sentence in the area provided.

5. Fever during a cold

6. Diarrhea

7. Menstruation

8. Sickle-cell anemia

9. Cystic fibrosis

10. Radiologist Boyd Eaton of Emory University and his colleagues believe that biochemical changes are behind today's breast cancer epidemic. They see these changes as the result of problems encountered in the New Age by a body designed for the Stone Age.

11. Briefly explain the evolutionary relevance of the birthing process, and the number of children a woman would have, to the chances of getting breast cancer.

12. Nesse states that evolutionary medicine is trying to explain what has been happening is response to disease that has not improved the body and made it better. Howard Howland's experiment in myopia is an attempt to demonstrate the process of natural selection in action. Paul Ewald's strategy for domesticating HIV by using selective agents (monogamy, condoms and abstinence) to quell the virus' virulence is worth a shot according to him. How does his plan demonstrate the effects of the process of natural selection as you understand it? What would cause the HIV to become less of a "killer" over time? Explain your answer in the text box below.

13. Randolph Nesse concludes the Lori Oliwenstein article with the following quote:

But Darwinian medicine's critics don't deny the field's legitimacy; they point mostly to its lack of hard-and-fast answers, its lack of clear clinical guidelines. "I think this idea will eventually establish itself as a basic science for medicine"

This reading is only a small beginning to your Evolutionary Medicine Quest as you attempt to understand the implications a Darwinian paradigm on the etiology of cancer. However, despite the early stage of the learning process, do you think that Nesse's confidence in this evolutionary perspective is justifiable from what you have read so far?

Related Links:

Evolutionary Biology Resources

This is a list of cyber resources from theInternet that deal with interesting issues in Evolutionary Biology. They were assembled to provide supplemental materials for a course in Evolutionary Biology at Saint Anselm College.

What is Darwinian Medicine?

A brief overview of: Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine by Randolph Nesse and George Williams, Vintage Books, 1996.

Darwinian Evolutionary Medicine

An editorial from the Southern Medical Journal on Darwinian (Evolutionary) Medicine

Darwinian Medicine Website

This Website was first created for Science Week 1997, after which it has continued to be devoted to Darwinian Medicine; under constant review and open to your ideas and comments.

Paul Ewald:Infectious Disease and the Evolution of Virulence

The transcript of an interview with Paul Ewald on the PBS Evolution site.

Infectious Disease as an Evolutionary Paradigm

Joshua Lederberg, Sackler Foundation Scholar, Rockefeller University, New York, New York, USA

The basic principles of genetics and evolution apply equally to human hosts and to emerging infections, in which foodborne outbreaks play an important and growing role. However, we are dealing with a very complicated coevolutionary process in which infectious agent outcomes range from mutual annihilation to mutual integration and resynthesis of a new species. In our race against microbial evolution, new molecular biology tools will help us study the past; education and a global public health perspective will help us deal better with the future.

Deadly Evolution

Deadly Evolution is an audio file from Sound Print produced by Loretta Williams and Marjorie Centofanti.

A flu suddenly becomes deadly and kills more than 20 million people. Malaria, once easily treated, has become one of the most persistent diseases of our time. Even new viruses such as HIV exhibit variations in the virus's ability to kill. A variety of factors influence the spread and deadliness of disease, but some biologists think a critical influence has been overlooked--evolution. Producers Marjorie Centofanti and Loretta Williams explore the evolution theories that could lead to change in the treatment of infectious disease.

Learn more about the scientists featured in this program: Allen Herre shares a summary of an article on his virulence research, Paul Ewald contributes excerpts from his bibliography, and Phyllis Kanki describes her experiences as an HIV/AIDS researcher in Senegal.