In chapter 2, Dr. Moalem discusses the effect of the environment and rapid climate change on evolution and the reason we may develop certain diseases that help us survive in the present. The rapid climate change and ice ages made people with Type 1 Diabetes more likely to survive and reproduce because of their condition. This relates to Big Idea 1: The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life. The cold caused the development of Type 1 Diabetes, which during the time of the ice age was a selective advantage.
We know that Type 1 Diabetes resulted as a result of the rapid change to extremely cold weather, but is it possible that there are genetic diseases that result from an extreme weather shift to a hotter climate? Research and try to find a disease that either seems to like to a time period in history with a hotter climate, or try and find a disease that relates to a population that lives in an overall warmer climate than normal. Also, research if it is possible to develop different traits if a population moves from a climate on one end of the spectrum, say cold, to the other end, say hot. While doing research you may also come upon methods used to find these observations such as the tree rings discovered by Andrew Ellicott Douglass.
(Dana Morgan, Dmorgan4@students.d125.org)
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