Evolving Ourselves Reading Guide

For each question, make sure to write your answers and DO NOT type them. Your answers must come from the book, as we will be able to tell the difference between the book answers and what you found on the internet. Write in complete sentences. This is due on the first day back (August 6th). If you have any questions about the class, please feel free to ask. Enjoy your summer! Coach Chvatal and Coach Maloney What Would Darwin Write Today? 1. What are signs of evolution within humans that are mentioned? 2. What did Darwin say were the two major forces of evolution? How have humans altered them? 3. What do nonrandom mutations do to people? 4. How does unnatural selection change the world?

Is Autism a Harbinger of our changing brains? 1. What are some diseases that are caused by a single mutation? 2. What are 5 facts noted about autism? 3. How have our living patterns as a species changed over time? What does the author say about these changes? The DarWa Theory Revisited 1. What did you think were the two most surprising facts on how the ideas of Wallace and Darwin were eventually published? 2. How did their thoughts differ in terms of the mechanisms that lead to evolution? 3. How have humans impacted the planet if the last few centuries?

Twenty Generations to Domesticate Humans 1. What did Belyeav do with foxes? How was this beneficial to humans? 2. What happens when species are transplanted from rural to urban environments? 3. What is another animal that Darwin examined to understand evolution? How did it help him understand artificial selection and evolution? 4. Summarize the domestication of humans described on page 18. 5. What is meant by the statement, “we have largely taken ourselves out of the food chain”? 6. What has happened to the frequency of wars?

Side Effects of Nonviolence – skip this chapter Allergies: Another Harbinger of our Evolving Bodies? What are the 7 most interesting facts within this chapter and which one TOTALLY blew you away? Our Unnatural All-Natural World 1. True or False. Neanderthals and other species had more cavities than modern day humans. Provide evidence in the chapter to explain. 2. How did our changing diet change our mouth? How did it change our size? 3. What happened to potatoes as they were introduced to Europe? 4. What have scientists done to tomatoes? 5. What Is meant by the quote “nothing is entirely natural any longer”? 6. What is a potential downside to having minimum size requirements for fishing?

7. What are 3 examples of how animals are adapting to living in a changing climate? Fat Humans, Fat Animals: Another Symptom? 1. A drink in a movie theater can be equal to…… 2. What are 2 factors mentioned for the potential rise in obesity? 3. What is a consequence of having obese babies? 4. Why are so many animals (pets and lab animals) also experiencing increasing levels of obesity? 5. What are obesogens? 6. How can a mother’s stress level be passed on to their kids? What did one study show that could help reverse this trend? 7. Which two systems are your gut bacteria interacting with? Why is this important to be aware of?

An Evolutionary Anomaly: More Sex, Less Reproduction – skip this chapter The Nature Vs. Nurture Wars 1. What are three things that Watson is known for that are mentioned at the beginning of the chapter? 2. What are three facts highlighted at the bottom of page 54? 3. What were the unexpected findings in terms of our genome size? Missing Heredity, Mysterious Toxins 1. What is mentioned about the genetic contribution of height in humans? 2. What is meant by the statement “very few genes operate like a light switch”? 3. Why is it so hard to figure out how genes bring about certain conditions in people? Provide at least 3 reasons.

Transgenerational Inheritance: aka “Voo-doo Biology” 1. How did postwar famine impact future generations of the Dutch? 2. What was Lamarck’s theory of evolution? How do these findings relate to his basic concept of evolution? 3. What epigenetic experiment was conducted with mice and almonds? 4. What are examples of “on/off” switches in your epigenome? 5. How do our body systems influence our epigenomes? 6. What is DNA methylation and how can it impact evolution? 7. What was concluded from the obese mice experiment in regards to epigenetic inheritance?

WWIV: Nuking Our Microbes 1. Provide 2 examples of where wars were impacted by disease that are cited earlier in the chapter. 2. How are vaccines impacting microbes? 3. What is the meaning of “eventually, even the stupid understood.”? 4. When and how was penicillin discovered? 5. What are the consequence of using antibiotics and keeping buildings extremely clean? 6. What do 2 million people suffer from each year and why is this important to be aware of? 7. When tinkering with viral ecology, what are the three questions that need to be considered?

8. What is the virome and what is at stake if we just eliminate it without trying to understand it? The Yucky Stuff Inside You 1. What are the 5 most surprising things mentioned on pages 80 and 81? 2. What did Venter discover in the Sargasso Sea and what did he do after that in voyages he took later on? 3. What were the two most important facts that Venter discovered in terms of microbes in the sea? 4. True or False. You have different communities of microbes on different areas of your skin. 5. What has declined dramatically as a result of our awareness of microbial pathogens? 6. What is the connection between TB and larger brain size? 7. What is the connection between gut bacteria and obesity?

8. What is true about 36% of the chemicals in our body? 9. How does bacteria affect fruit fly mating? 10. How does the microbiome impact jewel wasps? Autism Revisited: Three Potential Drivers – skip this chapter Viruses: The Roadrunners of Evolution 1. What are Archaea? 2. What role do viruses play in horizontal gene transfer? How does this differ from Darwin’s understanding? 3. What 3 things stand out to you on page 98? 4. What study was conducted in 2013? What was discovered from these observations?

5. What do viruses do inside of their host organisms? 6. Over long periods of time, what are three things that can happen when viruses invade organisms? 7. How much of our DNA is viral? What can happen with the retroviruses that are in our DNA? A Perfectly Modern Pregnancy 1. How does nutrition impact the epigenome of kids? (page 106) 2. True or False. Supplemeents are not necessary to take in order to obtain necessary vitamins. 3. Why folic acid important for developing babies? 4. What are the impacts of stress on the baby’s epigenome?

5. What are the benefits of breast milk for babies? 6. What is the “farm effect”? Bringing it all Together – DESTINY is Propelling Evolution 1. What is your hologenome? 2. Why does it take a long time for beneficial mutations to accumulate in humans? 3. What are the reasons for the slow evolution in the core DNA genome? 4. What are the differences between chimpanzees and humans that are pointed out? 5. What are 3 things that humans do to alter the microbial ecosystem? 6. What does DESTINY stand for? 7. Which 3 biological systems on page 116 are mentioned as contributing to changes in your genome? Playing with the Building Blocks of Life 1. How did scientists perception of genetic engineering change over time? What was the main difference mentioned between 1982 and 2013 in terms of utilizing this technology? 2. What is iGEM? Which project that was highlighted did you find the most interesting and why? Humans Hijacking Viruses 1. How can humans use a virus to carry out gene therapy? 2. What are the risks associated with gene therapy?

3. What are 3 things that gene therapy is being used to treat? 4. After reading this chapter, what are 2 concerns that you have about utilizing this technology? Editing Life on a Grand Scale 1. How does a bacteria utilize CRISPR to defend itself? 2. How can humans utilize CRISPR? 3. How is CRISPR different from gene therapy? 4. What are some potential uses for CRISPR? 5. What are 3 odd things that scientists have done with genetic engineering that are mentioned at the top of page 131? 6. How does CRISPR change algae and agriculture and why is this important? 7. What are two ways CRISPR was used in mosquitos? 8. True or False. CRISPR can be used to modify human embryos. 9. What are your thoughts on trying to use this technology to try and modify human embryos? Unnatural Acts, Designer Babies and Sex 2.0 1. What is carried within your mtDNA and which parent donated their mighty mitochondria to you?

2. What are 3 things that stood out to you in the rest of the chapter? Boyden Brains 1. What is mentioned about central nervous system drugs? 2. How did we discover the blood-brain barrier’s existence? 3. What is optogenetics? What are 2 potential applications? Better Living Through Chemistry – skip this chapter Forever Young, Beautiful and Fearless 1. What are 3 experiments conducted to try and reduce or slow down aging? 2. What are the 5 facts that you find most interesting in the rest of the chapter? Unnatural Attraction – skip this chapter Sports Quandaries and Beyond – skip this chapter Designer Organs and Cloned Humans 1. What did Anthony Atala’s team do? 2. What is the goal of Tandon’s work?

3. Summarize the process of cell division from conception outlined on page 177. 4. What did Yamanaka discover and why is it a significant discovery? 5. Which of the cloned animals would you like to have and why? Evolving Brains Revisited – skip this chapter The Robot-Computer-Human Interface Write a paragraph summary of this chapter and then write a paragraph reaction (your thoughts on where the future is headed/pros/cons etc).

Perhaps an Ethical Question or Two 1. What was the origin of Eugenics? 2. When did sterilization end in the U.S.? 3. True or False. Male animals and cells are used in higher numbers even when the disease being examined is more common in females. 4. On page 199, what are some of the differences mentioned between different populations? 5. How is the APOL1 gene harmful as well as being beneficial? 6. After reading this chapter, do you agree or disagree with the scientific community’s reluctance to examine genetic patterns in different genders or races? Why or why not?

Technically Life, Technically Death 1. What is the connection made between declining infant mortality and natural selection? 2. “And yet, that’s what we often do with Grandma….” What is this referring to? What are your thoughts about this and other things mentioned in the book about what is done to try to prolong a person’s life? Trust Whom? – skip this chapter The Future of Life – skip this chapter I Don’t Remember You…..De-Extinction 1. Which animals are being looked at as being brought back to life? How are scientists trying to accomplish this? 2. What is the FOXP2 gene and which organisms are shown to have it? What could result from modifying this gene? (page 221) Humanity’s Really Short Story – skip this chapter

Evolving Hominins 1. Why are there so many different blood types in humans? Why are they found at different frequencies in different locations? (page 229) Synthetic Life 1. What is Synthia 1.0? (page 236) 2. What were believed to be some applications for Synthia? Humans and Hubris – skip this chapter Leaving Earth? 1. What is Methanosarcina and what is it believed to have done in the past? 2. What are 3 challenges that humans would face if we decided to try and colonize other planets? 3. How does radiation impact men and women?

4. What can Deinococcus radiodurans do that allows it to adapt to its environment? 5. How does E. coli survive radiation? 6. How is vaccine production inefficient? What could be done to speed the process up? 7. How can printing DNA help out with having organisms on other planets? New Evolutionary Trees 1. What was unique about the organism that was created at the beginning of the chapter? 2. The rest of the chapter refers to the fact that we can speed up our evolution as a species with the available technologies that exist today. What are your thoughts on this? In the future, if you have a life threatening condition, would you consider using this type of technology to try and cure you? Epilogue 1. What are 3 brief evolution examples given on page 261? 2. What is the goal for the Center for Extreme Bionics?