Malaria: Difference between revisions
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[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/insidenova/2012/06/doctor-darwin-2.html by Lori Fingerhut 29/6/12 PBS] | [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/insidenova/2012/06/doctor-darwin-2.html by Lori Fingerhut 29/6/12 PBS] | ||
It's a basic tenet of biology that natural selection picks the most advantageous traits and passes them on to the next generation. Why, then, do people still suffer from debilitating genetic diseases? Shouldn't the genes that code for these diseases be removed from the population over time? How did they manage to keep themselves around during the course of human evolution? It turns out that there may be a reason that genes for harmful diseases survive evolutionary selection and pass from generation to generation. | It's a basic tenet of biology that natural selection picks the most advantageous traits and passes them on to the next generation. Why, then, do people still suffer from debilitating genetic diseases? Shouldn't the genes that code for these diseases be removed from the population over time? How did they manage to keep themselves around during the course of human evolution? It turns out that there may be a reason that genes for harmful diseases survive evolutionary selection and pass from generation to generation. | ||
=====Deadly Diseases===== | |||
[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/series/diseases/malaria.html by PBS Shows] | |||
"Malaria" is a misnomer. Drawn from the Italian mala aria, or "bad air," the name reflects the historical belief that the disease is caused by miasmas, or noxious exhalations from rotting matter or stagnant water. In 1889, a tiny parasite was revealed as the disease-causing agent, and eight years later, the mosquito was identified as the parasite-carrying agent. | |||
