Subject:
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Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 11 May 2000 17:59:47 GMT
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Viewed:
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688 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher Tracey writes:
> > At that point, it's in the interest of the species to slow
> > down reproduction.
>
> I disagree here, I think I am in more of the carrying capacity camp. You
> seem to be discounting
I think I was mixing the way that I was using the phrase "in the interest of."
Obviously organisms don't know what's in their species' "best interest" in
terms of adaptability. I'd revise my statement above to be something like: It
is probably in the interest of the species to slow down reproduction, but
there's no clear genetic basis for believing that that will happen.
Or were you disagreeing that infection could wipe a species?
> Hmm, maybe drift has a different meaning to you, given your background. To • me,
> drift is thought of as a random, unguided event. You seem to state that
OK, I was perhaps misusing jargon. Your description of what I meant is
correct. I simply meant the gradual change of gene frequency due to selection
(or random, if we think that really exists).
> I understand what you are saying in regard to the # of offspring produced.
> However infected males can produce a lot of offspring with no parental
> investment. females can reproduce at least every 10-11 months... it
> will spread long before the 'abstience gene' can reach high proportions
> in the population.
Could be. How does our ability to detect the disease factor in? Unlike most
organisms, we can test for it and make judgements based on the results.
Mightn't that boost the speed a bit?
> > > could be a whole different story... However, I just think the change
> > > would be too slow... (maybe i'll try the math on this tonight.
> >
> > It may be slow. Everything in genetics is slow.
>
> yea, but i mean real slow, hundreds of generations slow. the virus would
> have adapted to the change many times over by then.
OK, right. I hadn't thought about comparing the speed at which the infection
adapts to the speed at which the host adapts. On the other hand, the virus
won't have any strong pressure to adapt as long as there's some a substantial
host population still passing it around.
By the way, how is it that the virus mutates effectively more than we do? Our
genes have basically the same structure, so is it based on the method of
reproduction, or the simplicity of their life form?
> > 12, African Cichlids as a young adult, show cats for the last ten years, and
> > I'm soon to start chickens since I just moved to the "country."
>
> African Cichlids are one on the things that got me into evolutionary biology.
> Adaptive radiation was the coolest thing to learn about. :)
Yeah. Do you mean that hearing a lecture about the diversity in the rift lakes
was facinating and so you pursued it, or do you mean that you kept cichlids and
wanted to study them? Unfortunately, they'll all be gone in 20 years. Tilapia
introduced as a food source are quickly outcompeting them in the three big
lakes and many small ones.
Chris
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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| (...) I understood that, I have probably been influenced/corrupted by Richard Dawkins... (...) perhaps. I guess that would fall under artificial selection. I think we may be bordering on eugenics here, which has its own set of problems. (...) true, (...) (25 years ago, 15-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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| Christopher Weeks wrote: <snip> (...) Ok- I'll assume. This may spawn a separate discussion, but did anyone read that 'natural history of rape' book that made a lot of headlines a few months ago. i haven't read it yet, but i have read some other (...) (25 years ago, 10-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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