Thursday, December 01, 2005

The Mosquito and the Bottle - On Sickle Cell Anemia and Malaria

The Loom

File this under Non-Intelligent Design. People with a single copy of the sickle cell anemia gene are less likely to contract malaria by a factor of ten. It's an evolutionary tradeoff. Over time, the population in a malaria-ridden area will grow because of the sickle cell trait, and that's what natural selection is all about.

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