Evolution+is+in+the+Air

1. "If we are unlucky..." the author writes we will see evolution in action. What does she mean? Why would it by unlucky to see the avian virus evolve. The more viruses evolve, the worse they become. They are more deadly and harder to cure at higher stages of evolution. 2. Define parasite. A parasite is an organism that lives inside of another organism. 3. Define gene. A gene is a specific sequence of nucleotides in DNA or RNA that is located on a chromosome and that is the functional unit of inheritance. 4. She compares viruses to tiny parcels. Why? How are these parcels mailed? They can quickly be transported from one organism to another. The transportation happens very quickly. 5. 20 million people died of the Spanish Flu during World War II. Yet the author claims to know that this flu virus was particularly deadly not that it was a normal virus but because of the war and wartime "deprivation" people were more likely to get sick and die. What two pieces of evidence indicate this was a very deadly virus unlike the normal flu virus. The evidence was the symptoms that the people who were infected were experiencing, and that it was more lethal in animals. It could have been that this disease was brought about from the transportation of people eating infected animals. 6. What is H5N1? The scientific name for the flu. 7. Since H5N1 has killed mostly birds, why are we worried about it? Birds come into contact with humans very often and there is a great fear of people getting infected through that contact. 8. Two processes could change the H5N1 in a deadly way: sex and mutation. What is viral sex and how could it change the virus? What is viral mutation and how could this change the virus? It is like an STD because the disease can mutate through sex and become even more deadly. 9. How can mutation lead to evolution (origin of new species)? Mutation leads to evolution because when a disease evolves, it changes into a new type of disease. 19. How can sex lead to evolution (origin of new species)? Sex can lead to the evolution of new STD's because the diseases are shared through many people and mutate and change with each new person that it infected.