1 What do you think is meant by the phrase 'Darwinian medicine'?
2 Explain how the incorrect use of antibiotics has contributed to the rapid evolution of drug resistance in bacteria.
3 Find out the name of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. What are the symptoms of TB and why can it spread so quickly through the population? What drugs have been used to treat this disease? Explain why the number of reported cases of TB is beginning to rise again.
4 Why might we be wrong to take medicines like aspirin or cough linctus for coughs and colds?
5 Name three common foods that would have been unknown to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. If the hunter-gatherer lifestyle was so 'healthy', explain why people tended to die before they reached what we consider to be 'middle age'.