This week, as we wrapped up this course, we learned about ways in which Humans and other species continue to evolve today. I found the article about disease to be super interesting to read, as it provides a lot of insight onto why people have evolved to be the way that we are. In the article, it discusses topics of anxiety, nausea, and the ability to feel pain, among other things, and it provides a really interesting perspective on why we evolved to have these traits as well as why they are essential for our survival.

Prior to the reading, I would never have thought about coughing or nausea or pain as positive things, but the reading explained that without coughing or nausea, our body might not reject specific toxins, and pain helps us keep in track with our body so without it, we could have muscle failure. I would have never thought of anxiety as being positive either, and I still don’t view it in a positive way, but reading about how it has aided humans in survival and evolution was nonetheless super interesting.

I also found it interesting the comparison between the amount of time it takes for humans to evolve or mutate, versus the amount of time that it might take a disease to evolve. Even though I already kind of knew that diseases and bacteria evolved and mutated quickly, I had never really put much thought into it, and reading about it really put it into perspective for me.