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Asked by benhawkins to Cassie on 13 Nov 2013.
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Cassandra Raby answered on 13 Nov 2013:
This is a really great question! I want to answer this properly so I might end up adding more information when I remember something new 🙂
The first thing I can think of is…
Of the new diseases in humans… 70% of those are from wild animals!Also… baboons get stressed like humans do – by worrying about who is our friend and who isn’t! This is different to a lot of animals
And for baboons – who you’re friends with affects how ill you get!This isn’t very recent but I find it very exciting…
The reason a lot of animals (and plants) mix their genes when creating their babies.. is because of parasites!! Parasites evolve faster than the larger things they live in, so to try and fight against the parasites, the hosts have to try and evolve faster. And this is the theory why sexual reproduction evolved! All because of disease!I work on quite a few different areas of research, so there is a lot of research I can probably talk about!
And remember – these facts will always be tested to check there isn’t something else that explains what we see any better! 🙂
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Comments
fariac commented on :
Ben great question, thanks for the answer Cassie – really interesting stuff! Make sure you add this to your poster Ben and I will give you a science credit (10 vivos)