Hi JanH,
Very good presentation! But no surprise--yours usually are.I read that book recently and thought it was very good.Wasn't it in Dawkins' book that the example of malaria and sickle cell anemia given? That's where in Africa, where malaria is prevalent, there is a large percentage of people with sickle cell. This mutation gives them a protection against malaria. Then, if evolution is true, one could predict that in the event malaria was not a natural selection factor, sickle cell would not be an advantage and the incidence would go down. That is what happened when coming to the U.S. It's an example of a mutation bestowing protection and therefore more of the possessors of it would reproduce since they weren't killed off by malaria.But where malaria disappears, ones without the mutation of sickle cell don't leave as much progeny and the number go down.That was such a good book.Pat
Very good presentation! But no surprise--yours usually are.I read that book recently and thought it was very good.Wasn't it in Dawkins' book that the example of malaria and sickle cell anemia given? That's where in Africa, where malaria is prevalent, there is a large percentage of people with sickle cell. This mutation gives them a protection against malaria. Then, if evolution is true, one could predict that in the event malaria was not a natural selection factor, sickle cell would not be an advantage and the incidence would go down. That is what happened when coming to the U.S. It's an example of a mutation bestowing protection and therefore more of the possessors of it would reproduce since they weren't killed off by malaria.But where malaria disappears, ones without the mutation of sickle cell don't leave as much progeny and the number go down.That was such a good book.Pat