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Medicine Without Evolution is like Engineering Without Physics
March 3, 2015 @ 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
$18Evolutionary medicine uses the basic science of evolutionary biology to improve the understanding, prevention and treatment of disease. Instead of just asking how the body works and why it goes awry, it also asks why natural selection left us with so many traits like wisdom teeth and the narrow birth canal that leave us vulnerable to disease. The old answer–the limits of natural selection–is important, but there are five other important explanations for vulnerability.
Randolph Nesse, a founder of the field, will give examples to illustrate all six reasons, with a focus on cancer, infectious diseases, and emotional disorders. He will explain why the field is growing so quickly, its prospects for providing a deeper understanding of disease, and how scientists and clinicians can join the effort to bring evolutionary biology to bear on the problems of medicine.