Module 7 Blog Post: Reflection

 

Reflection

    In my first blog post, I wrote about what my high school biology teacher told us about evolution; that its a change over time and that we change every day. I thought she was trying to say it in an inspirational way, not in the scientific way. Throughout this class, I learned what the actual definition of evolution is, how it occurs, and the mechanisms that facilitate it. Mechanisms such as selection, fitness, epigenetics, mutation, mutation rates, and Hardy-Weinberg assumptions. Definitions of these words were taught in other classes but we were not exactly taught how to show them visually and quantitatively like we do in the R exercises. One important concept I personally did not understand was how mutation rates can change and more importantly, how do they change. Now I know that DNA polymerase; which copies the DNA during replication, can become mutated which in turn can change mutation rates. That was one of the most interesting concepts. My view of evolution has changed in the way that, not only do we know the math that goes into these terms, but we are also learning how to read and create visual representations of these concepts. Evolution has a lot of depth to it, and there are so many interdisciplinary concepts that tie into the theory.

Taking genetics was a prerequisite to take this class, so I think all of us have a good background when going through the different mutation types, the Hardy-Weinberg assumptions and mathematically learning how to compute frequencies but we learning how to model it was not taught. I personally have trouble with the models on R exercises, mainly the cave molly and modeling different scenarios involving heritability of standard length and eye size.

I think learning more about the coevolution of pathogens and humans and how it occurs or evolutionary epidemiology would be interesting to learn more about. How and what about these concepts are modeled and what can we learn from it theoretically and realistically.