Survival Of The Sickest

I've been reading this fascinating book on genetic "diseases" and evolution. Granted, I have not finished it at the time of the writing of this entry. However, I do like what I've read so far, and I believe that while it does overlap the subject matter of Parasite Rex somewhat, it does have more of a focus on genetics and that topic has always interested me.

The book is easy reading, and does alert me to just how limited my senior high school biology education has been. (And I thought that was pretty hefty by itself). Basically, what I learned from my classes was that evolution was, at best, introduced to new genes through the vagaries of random mutation on a rather minute scale. Perhaps some of it could be from gene exchanges through sexual reproduction. Yet, my education failed to at least hint at the possibility of genes switching position outside the context of sexual reproduction, that they could be switched on and off prior to fertilization such that the on and off state could possibly be passed on to the offspring.

I've always suspected that evolution was more active than I've been taught in school, primarily because the adaptations that parasites come up with seem to be suspiciously pertinent to their needs. After all, if it were always a case of a random 1 in a million parasites coming up with the fix, then repopulating to that million, it seems quite improbable that such elegantly adapted samples could just pop into existence even after a million iterations. Improbable, but not impossible, of course.

Of course, I'd imagine that should this subject matter be taught as well, my senior high syllabus would have been even more horrendous. Regardless, I've been introduced by this book to the adaptive benefits of certain congenital conditions that we popularly regard as genetic defects. It also sheds light on my own condition, and how G6PD deficiency could possibly be a good thing. Perhaps I should take care to avoid certain foods that I wasn't previously told to avoid. Hmm. Besides that, I'm also glad that I have not actually donated blood at some point, and risked dosing someone with my epic exploding red blood cells.