Survival of the Sickest
You will be issued a copy of Survival of the Sickest by Dr. Sharon Moalem. This was
provided by an Ecolab Grant and will be used for several years, so please take care of the
book. Some of the book we will read in class together and some you will be responsible
for reading at home.
• DO take notes as you read the book; use a paper as a bookmark. Write down words you
are not sure about, questions that pop into your head, and comments. You will be
discussing and sharing ideas in class and with your classmates. You will have some
questions for each chapter. You can choose the questions or tasks that make sense to
you. You must do at least one from each chapter and overall you should aim to earn up
to 100 points from this (almost 200 are possible). You can pass on many questions and
still get enough points. Please be careful to only turn in your own work in your own
words or you will be both asked to answer different questions to receive points.
If you are ever in a place where you forgot to bring your book, but you have your iPad, I
found out (after the grant) that it is also available in pdf
(http://www.warrencountyschools.org/userfiles/2559/Classes/81687/Survival%20of
%20the%20Sickest.pdf)
• Answer the following questions after reading each chapter in the book.
Write your answers on separate sheets of paper. Be sure to identify your paper with
your name and hour. Also identify each page with the chapter. Lastly, identify each
item with its question number.
Introduction and Chapter I -- “Ironing it Out”
1. What is the “big” question the book will attempt to answer? (1 pt)
2. What made the author interested in Hemochromatosis? (1 pt)
3. Identify and describe at least five ways in which iron impacts life and what molecule
in our bodies contain iron. (5pts)
4. In the context of this chapter, explain the author’s reference to Bruce Lee and to the
barber pole. (2 pts)
5. What is the connection between hemochromatosis and Yersinia pestis? (1 pt)
6. Why do so many people from Europe have Hemochromatosis compared to the rest of
the world? (2 pts)
7. Explain how observance of Passover may have helped protect Jews from the
bubonic plague in 14th century Italy. (2pts)
8. How may the ancient practice of bloodletting (phlebotomy) assist in the
conquering of an infection? (2 pts)
9. Why is life more abundant in the North Atlantic than in the Pacific? How is this
fact related to global warming? (2 pts)
Chapter II –“A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Temperature Go Down”
10. Distinguish between each of the three types of diabetes. (3 pts)
11. What did the ice cores of 1989 reveal about the Younger Dryas? (2 pt)
12. Describe several of the body’s “arsenal of natural defenses” against cold. (4 pts)
13. Describe the connection between Rana sylvetica and diabetes. (2 pt)
15. In chapters 1 and 2 several inherited disorders were discussed.
Create and complete a chart with the following information:
Disease/Disorder, Symptoms, and Evolutionary Advantage
for each of the diseases (12 pts - 4 Disorders in chart for full credit)
Chapter III –“The Cholesterol Also Rises”
16. Why do we need Vitamin D? Why do we need Cholesterol? Why do we need Folic
acid? What is the relationship between vitamin D and cholesterol? (4 pts)
17. Briefly describe the connection between each of the following pairs of concepts:
(2 pts each pair)
•Tanning beds/ birth defects
•Sunglasses/ sunburn (Explain how wearing sunglasses can help give you a
sunburn)
•Hypertension/ slave trade
•Asian flush/drinking water
•Skull shape/ climate
•Body hair/ malaria
18.What’s so fishy about the Inuits’ skin color? Explain why Inuit Eskimos, despite
living in polar regions with little sunlight, remain dark-skinned like their
equatorial ancestors. What is the relationship between vitamin D and skin color?( 4
pt)
19. Explain how both vitamins and ourselves are in a "can't live with you, can't live
without you" relationship with the sun. (2 pts)
20. Explain why winter and naturally dark skin are a bad combination for
someone in a "Who has the lowest cholesterol?" contest. (2 pts)
21. What is "the silent killer", and what may be the connection between it, salt and
the slave trade? (2 pts)
22. Explain the food and the bad of ApoE4. (2 pt)
23. Give a specific example of how knowledge of your genes could influence the
next prescription your doctor writes for you. (2 pts)
Chapter IV –“ Hey, Bud, Can You do Me a Fava?”
24. What is G6P0? Explain the role of G6P0. (2 pt)
25. Briefly describe the connection between each of the following pairs of concepts:
(3 pts each)
•European clover/ Australian sheep breeding crisis of the 1940s
•Capsaisin/ birds and mammals
•Malaria/ air conditioning
•Favism/ fava beans
26. Explain the following statement found on page 87: “Life is such a compromise.”
(2 pts)
27. What are free radicals? How are they harmful? What enzyme in our cells
protests against them? (3 pts)
Chapter V –“Of Microbes and Men”
28. Identify 3 ways in which microbes/parasites move from host to host. (3pts)
29. Describe the life of a guinea worm. (3 pts)
30. Why do pathogenic microbes want the host to remain relatively healthy? (2 pts)
31. Explain the relationship between the mode of transmission to the virulence of the
invader. (2 pts)
32. What is our advantage in the “survive and produce race”? (1 pt)
33. Why might antibiotics and yogurt be a good combination? (2 pt)
34. Explain how, through host manipulation, the organism that causes a disease
(choose one) helps insure that others like it get into a new victim. (3 pts)
35. If you were an extremely virulent (powerful) disease causing organism, how
would you choose to be transmitted from victim to victim? (3 pts)
36. What is the “strategy” of the common cold for ensuring contagion? (2 pts)
Chapter VI –“Jump Into the Pool”
37. Briefly discuss the following terms/ scientists: (2 pts each)
•Jenner
•Vaccine
•Antibodies
•B cells
•“Junk DNA”
•Lamarck
•McClintock
•Retroviruses
38. What is the Weissman barrier? (1 pt)
39. Make connections between the following sets of terms: (3 pts ea)
•Transposons/viruses/evolution
•Sunspots/flu epidemics
40. Humans have about 25, 000 genes and more than a million difference antibodies.
How is this possible? (2 pts)
41.What is a persisting virus? (1 pt)
42. Explain how we are, in a manner of speaking, like a soup made of mammal,
bacteria and virus ingredients. (2 pts)
43. Explain how, with about 25,000 protein recipes (genes), you can produce
millions of different proteins. (3 pts)
44. Explain how retroviruses deviate from the "normal" pattern of how DNA and
mRNA work in our cells. (2 pts)
Chapter VII –“Methyl Madness: Road to the Final Phenotype”
45. Make connections between four of the five the following sets of terms: (3 pts each)
•Vitamin supplement/ agouti mice
•Snakes/ longtailed lizards
•Baker Hypothesis/ fathers who smoke
•Smoking grandmothers/ asthmatic children
•Betel nut chewing/ cancer
46. Epigenics may be partially responsible for the childhood epidemic of obesity.
Explain. (2 pts)
47. “Good times mean more boys. Tough times mean more girls.” Explain (2 pts)
48. Choose either voles, water fleas, locusts or lizards and describe how they are an
example of an epigenetic effect. Why would Lamarck rejoice in this example? (3 pts)
49. What is a methyl group? What is its significance in determining an organism's
phenotype? How do methyl groups affect your genotype? (3 pts)
50. Is there evidence that parental behavior can change a child's phenotype after it
is born? Explain (3 pts)
Chapter VIII – Why You and Your iPod Must Die
51. Make connections between the following terms: (3 pts each)
•Progeria/ lamina A
•Hayflick limit/ telomeres
•Cancer cells/ stem cells
•Size/ life expectancy
•Risky child birth/ big brains and bipedalism
52. Explain the author’s iPod and aging analogy. (1 pt)
53. Identify the five lines of cancer defense. (5 pts)
54.What are the two accomplishments of biogenic obsolescence? (1 pt)
55.Compare and contrast the Savanna and aquatic ape hypotheses. (3 pts)
56. Describe the aquatic ape hypothesis, including evidence for it. (3pts)
Conclusion
The author hopes that you will come away from his book with an appreciation of three
things. Give a brief explanation of each of the following: (2 pt each)
57. Life is in a constant state of creation
58. Nothing in our world exists in isolation
59. Our relationship with disease is often much more complex that we may have
previously realized.
60. “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.”
How does the book, Survival of the Sickest, support this quote by Theodosius
Dobzhansky, a noted evolutionary biologist? (4 pts)
Questions modified from biologywithoutwalls.com