Survival of the Sickest by Sharon Moalem delves into how certain genetic diseases and illnesses found in our gene pool can actually have a positive impact on the survival of humans. Moalem uses examples like diabetes and overtasting as evidence to support her claims that adaptations that might have been helpful long ago are harmful now, due to various reasons she explains. Most of what Moalem says turned out to be correct with an error regarding the types of diabetes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Moalem makes two claims about Neanderthals that he does not support with sufficient evidence. One of which claims that prehumans and Neanderthals interbred, states in chapter 3: "It is also possible that humans evolved in multiple places, and that several groups of prehumans and Neanderthals even interbred." (Moalem p. 71) This statement is true, humans who emigrated from Africa first interbred with neanderthals in the Middle East and continued to do so in most of Eurasia, as it is proven that all Eurasians have Neanderthal ancestors (approximately 1.8-2.5). % of it). In 2017, a second Neanderthal genome was sequenced, from a 52,000-year-old bone fragment of a female called Vindija, which showed that humans interbred with Neanderthals as early as 130,000 to 140,000 years ago,” Thus, in contrast to previous analyzes of chromosome 21 for European Neanderthals (13), analyzes of complete genomes suggest that putative modern human gene flow into Neanderthals occurred before the divergence of populations ancestral to Neanderthals Vindija and Altai ~ 130-145 ka. (Prüfer) Both the Vindija study and the old Altai Neanderthal study both found evidence of significant gene flow between Eurasian prehumans and Neanderthals during their contact, but the researchers also found links between this mixing and some genes found in some Eurasians, including melanin production and diabetes, both of which Moalem uses as examples in his book. “Using a large clinical cohort, we discovered functional associations between Neanderthal alleles and AMH traits, which influence skin, immune system, depression, addiction and metabolism.” (Simonti) These traits that were advantages to early humans and allowed for better chances of survival in the harsh Ice Age environment are now detrimental in our modern environment, proving Moalem right. An SNP of SLC35F3, which downregulated thiamine transporters, could have helped early humans leaving Africa cope with changes in their diet regarding carbohydrate metabolism; Nowadays, however, this adaptation is harmful to our health because the modern diet includes simpler carbohydrates and less thiamine in foods. . This means that while we now require more thiamine, carriers of this gene have less. (Simonti) The other claim Moalem makes about Neanderthals is their use of plants for healing 60,000 years ago in chapter 4. This claim can also be proven true by a recent study conducted in 2017 on two Belgian Neanderthals, one of which, a sickly adolescent boy, I had some very interesting license plates. It appears his mouth was infected and there is evidence he was using a primitive form of penicillin and aspirin to self-medicate. The study states: “Our results support previous hypotheses that El Sidrón 1 may have.