Biology Book Report Final Essay

Submitted By hyjae0123
Words: 330
Pages: 2

Review of the book ‘Survival of the Sickest’ Why are some diseases more prevalent in certain populations? African-Americans are more likely to have a heart attack than other races. People having an Asian heritage are more likely to blush when drinking alcohol. What makes these differences? The book Survival of the Sickest, written by Dr. Sharon Moalem, brings an evolution to explain these examples of our lives. Survival of the Sickest is composed of eight chapters. Each chapter covers a different hypothesis. In the first two chapters, Dr. Moalem points out if a certain gene produces a trait that is less likely to survive in an environment, then this gene will disappear because of difficulty to pass it on to its offspring. However, human beings still suffer from genetic disorders. Dr. Moalem explains why these genetic diseases have been able to pass on to certain populations. In the middle part, he mentions how environments change physiological makeup of race and how our genetic makeup has been adapting in regards to where we live and what we eat. Chapter five covers how a parasite changes host’s behavior to reproduce itself into another host. The last part talks about basic background information of DNA and epigenetics which refers to a change that is not caused by DNA sequence. This book is very easy to read especially for those who have no science background. All examples are very interesting. Especially one example mentioned in chapter five in which a parasite