Twinning is Winning

 As someone who struggles with asthma, (as does my sister), I thought this would be a fitting "disease" to look at. I have a much more moderated case than my sister, as she is on multiple daily medications for it, and was once hospitalized when we were five. My mom was asthmatic when she was young, but mostly grew out of it. Asthma is a condition in which your airways are restricted and can sometimes form a mucus-like substance. This then leads to the inability to catch one's breath, wheeziness, and coughing. Triggers can include environmental things like cold air, allergens, and smoke, and it is a heritable condition. Many cases of asthma are in children, being 6 million of the 26 million people effected by it. Cases have steadily risen since the 1980's, as has the death rate from asthma. Asthma has actually been known about since ancient Greece, and was probably around before that too. Hippocrates was the first person to give asthma a name, and to also connect its s...

  I think the rate of speciation depends on the variables involved, and what type of speciation it is. Obviously, speciation cannot occur overnight, but it also doesn't have to take centuries at a time; it's a highly variable process. I think sympatric speciation takes longer than allopatric, with parapatric speciation occurs quickest of all.  For an example of parapatry, the fish in the R assignment could either move back to NS waters, adapt to the S waters, or die. Every instance of breeding in the population results in either the adaptation for S waters, or no adaptation, and it divides the populations relatively quickly. Diversification has the possibility to occur in a matter of a few generations. Is that always the case- no, but it is theoretically possible.  Allopatric speciation I think would generally be the next quickest, but there is a catch. An example of allopatry are the different squirrels in the Grand Canyon. The formation of the Canyon itself (plus the ri...

  After watching the video, its no secret that the pipefish is a rather unique organism. With the males being the less colorful, more sought after individual, it is backwards than what we normally experience in the animal kingdom. It definitely makes me question how something like this arose.  I think that possibly a reason for this might be that the number of females might outnumber the males, so the males have to be selective with who they want to pass their genes on with. The female courtship might have evolved due to this necessity to be chosen to breed with, and to make themselves more appealing to the males. I don't know if there's anything necessarily about the pipefish's biology that supports this hypothesis, other than the males are the dull and drab ones while the females are boots the house down mama, yes God, slay queen.