Survival of the Sickest Reading Guide

  1. What is hemochromatosis?
  2. What are chelators?
  3. Describe the acute phase response of the immune system.
  4. How does lactoferrin and ovoferrin protect young?
  5. What are macrophages and how do bacteria use them against our own body?
  6. What is the founder effect?
  7. What do barbers and surgeons have in common?
  8. How can bloodletting be good for a person?
  9. Why do we still have hemochromatosis today?
  10. Why is cystic fibrosis more common in people of European descent?
  11. What is the difference between type I and type II diabetes?
  12. Define uniformitarianism.
  13. Describe the body’s response to cold.
  14. Define homeostasis.
  15. What does brown fat do for bodies?
  16. Why do we have genetic-related diabetes?
  17. How does the wood frog survive winter?
  18. Why is blood sugar higher in winter months?
  19. What is fibrinogen?
  20. What does diabetes essentially do to the body?
  21. List the things Vitamin D does for the body.
  22. What are melanocytes?
  23. What is the difference between eumelanin and pheomelanin?
  24. Why should pregnant women avoid tanning beds?
  25. What does folic acid do?
  26. How do we make vitamin D?
  27. What does one’s skin color have to do with Vitamin D?
  28. What is ApoE4?
  29. What does ALDH2*2 do to Asians?
  30. What is one explanation why African-Americans have higher rates of hypertension than their African ancestors?
  31. Explain the significance of CYP2D6.
  32. What is the easiest way to lower cholesterol?
  33. What are free radicals?
  34. What does G6PD do and why are men less likely to have it?
  35. Why do plants produce fruit?
  36. What are phytoestrogens and how do plants use them to protect themselves?
  37. Why can birds consume peppers easier than mammals?
  38. What is propothiouracil?
  39. Why are toxins good for plants?
  40. Why should you avoid organic chemistry?
  41. How was the air conditioner invented?
  42. Why are plants important to medicine?
  43. Describe the path of how the lancet liver fluke gets from one sheep to another.
  44. Describe the life cycle of the parasitic wasp Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga.
  45. What is a symbiotic relationship?
  46. Describe the life cycle of the guinea worm.
  47. Describe the life cycle of Toxoplasma Gondii.
  48. How does streptococcus cause your body to attack itself?
  49. Define xenophobia and how does it affect the spread of disease?
  50. What is virulence?
  51. Describe three ways microbes move from host to host.
  52. How can we treat pathogens by changing their evolutionary path?
  53. What does vaccine literally mean?
  54. About how many genes do we have? Chromosomes?
  55. What is the difference between germ cells (gametes, sex cells, sperm, egg) and every other cell (somatic) in your body?
  56. How much of your DNA is actually used in each cell of your body?
  57. What is junk DNA and what is its new name? why?
  58. Where does most of this extra DNA come from?
  59. What is the difference between antigenic SHIFT and antigenic DRIFT? Why does it matter?
  60. and what does it have to do with sunspots?
  61. What is the younger Dryas?
  62. If we only have about 25,000 genes, how do we have 100,000+ proteins?
  63. Why does a gene continue to be expressed even when it is removed from a chromosome?
  64. Explain McClintlock’s transposons or “jumping genes. What are they and what causes them to jump?
  65. Identify Evil Knievel and Jordan?
  66. Why might Lamarck not be as wrong as your biology book says he is?
  67. What is the Weissman barrier?
  68. How are brains unique?
  69. Explain a B cell’s response to a virus (include V(D)J diseases)?
  70. Explain how breastfeeding is important for a baby’s immune system?
  71. Explain punctuated equilibrium.
  72. What are viruses? Retroviruses?
  73. How are DNA, RNA, and proteins connected?
  74. What is reverse transcriptase?
  75. What is a HERV and how much do you have?
  76. What are retrotransposons?
  77. How might we and “persisting viruses” be in a symbiotic relationship? Describe the niche of both.
  78. What does Moalem mean by “infectious design”?
  79. Explain the term epigenetics.
  80. Explain how DNA methylation controls gene expression.
  81. How doe identical twins end up not identical?
  82. Describe the epigenetic cycle of desert locust.
  83. Define maternal effect.
  84. What is the difference between phenotype and genotype?
  85. Explain the Barker hypothesis.
  86. How did the Nazi’s contribute to the Barker hypothesis?
  87. Why is it biologically important to love your children?
  88. Why are Elizabeth and Elanor significant to the field of epigenetics?
  89. Why will the drug Azacitidine hold a special place in medical history?
  90. Besides methylation, how are genes regulated?
  91. What happened in California after Sept. 11, 2001? And Germany, 1990? And other times of stress?
  92. What is the Human Epigenome Project?
  93. What are the two types of progeria and how do they differ?
  94. What is the Hayflick Limit?
  95. What are telomeres?
  96. Describe four ways your body protects against cancer.
  97. Define apoptosis.
  98. Define telomerase.
  99. How are stem cells like cancer cells?
  100. Why do smaller mammals have shorter life spans?
  101. How are you like your refrigerator?
  102. Define the term Biogenic Obsolescence.
  103. Describe the information found in a newborn’s DNA.
  104. Why is a baby’s head and a woman’s pelvis an imperfect fit?
  105. What caused this?
  106. Why are human babies so helpless for the first 3 months?
  107. Why do human babies come out backward?
  108. What is the Savannah theory?
  109. Why are humans the ONLY land animals with fat attached to the skin?
  110. What is the aquatic ape hypothesis?
  111. How do the following human features support this hypothesis: hairless, nose, bipedal.
  112. How does water-birthing fit in with all of this?
  113. What surprising aquatic instinct are babies born with?
  114. Why do we need to read books like this one?
  115. What three things does the author hope for?
  116. Explain the miracle of evolution.
  117. What are your thoughts on this book?

Have a great summer!