Evolutionary Medicine

I believe that some aspects of evolutionary medicine are important to help while others are not. It's important to mankind that we learn how different pathogens have evolved because what makes them evolve is the very thing that can stop them from evolving which can in turn stop most diseases. Once we know how diseases develop more vaccines can be made to stop it. It's important for the individuals that are working to develop these vaccines to know all about evolution. Doctors however I don't think by them learning evolution it would help them anymore. The way doctors are right now, I think we're doing just fine. I mean we've come this far without the study of evolution being required.
It's true that mechanics need to know how all of the parts of an engine work but an engine only works with all of the parts. They each do there individual thing. The body however is a very different subject, some organs the body can live on without. I guess you could said there are still alot of what ifs and how comes.

Larger brains and Bipedalism

According to the human evolution articles, bipedalism probably evolved to help maneuver better in trees and reproductive success. Bipedalism also helped with the regular use of tools as both carrying devices and as implements for resource explortation. Bipedalism was able to help find more food and shelter by being able to walk longer distances. It also helped in the mating process by finding more mates.

Nature selection played a role in larger brain size possibly due to reproductive success. Primates, they argue, live in relatively large groups where an individual's survival and reproductive success depends on its ability to manipulate others within a complex web of kinship and dominance relations (Seyfarth and Cheney). Brain size is also seen to be larger in animals that are fruit-eating or omnivorous. Species that feed on fruit may have problemes in learning and memony.

Robert M. Seyfarth and Dorothy L. Cheney, "What are big brains for?" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC123613/

This is the article I used to find out more information about bigger brain size.

The Ancestor's Tale: Chapter 1 and 2

In chapter one of the Ancestor's Tale, Dawkins warns us to avoid two misconceptions which are
1. The historian is tempted to scour the past for patterns that repeat themselves.
2. Temptation is the vanity of the present: conceit of hindsight
Dawkins tells us to stay away from these misconceptions because to study evolution we must be convinced that there is no premeditation that has laid the path of evolution one way or the other in hindsight of the future. It's better to think that everything happens for a reason and doesn't happen to creat a future event.

In chapter two of the Ancestor's Tale, Dawkins explains human origin with concepts such as Y-chromosome Adam and mtDNA Eve. Y-chromosome Adam is known as the all-male line on common and mtDNA Eve is known as the all-female line ancestory. These two concepts are more traceable than genes in general. Scientists have determined the timing and history of human migration by using these two concepts. Evolutionary biologist Alan Templeton came up with a theory about our migration out of Africa called "Out of Africa Again and Again". He used a coalescence theory for lots of seperate genes instead of just one. Using this theory he concluded, by using 13 haplotypes, that there were not two major migrations out of Africa but three.

Altruism

Altruism can evolve when it's not directed towards kin. Take for example vampire bats. Vampire bats go out to hunt and not all bats get blood meals like others. When this happens the ones lacking blood have to rely on those with blood to be fed. Bats can decide to feed another bat, not using too much energy, or keep it all to themselves. Vampire bats usually keep this behavior within the same cave.
This behavior is like "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" however there are individuals that don't reciprocate. By not reciprocating, they could be jeopardizing their own lives. In the future when they are in need of a meal, they may never get one because of their lack of reciprocating. By giving blood to one another they are helping the species survive. Mothers feed the young and older bats feed younger bats.

Queens and workers

Based on the Dawkins reading, the conflict between queens and workers is the queens want to create a 1:1 ratio of the same amount of male offspring that there is to female offspring. By the queen creating a 1:1 ratio it means that the workers are truely her slaves. The workers on the other hand what a 3:1 ratio, which favor sisters rather than brothers. Being a female this is the most efficient way to propagate your genes is to refain from breeding yourself and having your mother provide you with reproductive sisters and brothers. It was found in a study of ants that the workers win the conflict because they have more control. They are the guardians of the nursery where the queen just has control over her body. There is however an exception where the queen takes on salve-making workers, they think that they are achieving their desired 3:1 bias but really the queen is winning.

Natural and Sexual Selection

Darwin's belief of natural selection is based on the fact that all species of life evolved over time from a common ancestors. He believed that certain traits were passed on over time that helped with adaption, these variations helped with the struggle for existence.

Dawkins however believed in the survival of the stable. The most stable molecules will continue to grow into large molecules and eventually create cells. Cells are the start of an individual organism. Dawkins believed that natural selection involved replicators and those replicators created the genes we have today. Some genes were however discarded because the contained mutations.

The idea of sexual selection is shared by both Darwin and Dawkins. Sexual selection can favor the evolution of traits that enhance a male's success in reproduce. Parental care is very important, parents can either chose to take care of their offspring already in the world or choose to have more offspring. Sexual selection is based on traits that a female favors from one male to another male. In the end, the female has all the control over who she mates with.

Ratios

Fisher stated that a sex ratio of 50:50 (males: females) is an Evolutionary Stable Strategy because it is a system that auto-balances maintaining equilibrium in mating success of the population. Dawkins states that the best strategy for an individual depends on what the majority of the population are doing (Dawkins, 69). If there is a mechanism that induces a sex bias, decreasing the mating success of the population, it would not evolve, and would not be an ESS.
Cytoplasmic elements won't be 50:50 because they all of different jobs within the cell that they have to accomplish. With all of the elements having different jobs, they would never encounter themselves so their won't be a bias. When it comes to sex chromosomes and autosomal chromosomes, I'm not 100% positive on this but, I would like to think that sex chromosomes should favor bias sex ratios and autosomal chromosomes should favor equal ratios. Sex chromosomes favor uneven bias because they determine whether an individual is going to be XY or YY. By doing this the determine the sex needed to achieve maximum reproductive success. Autosomal chromosomes should favor equal sex ratios because they are chromosomes that everyone needs so there is no competition. They are also there so that good genes are passed on to both males and females.