SOMEBODY GET ME A DOCTOR...who knows evolution ;)

I think EVERYTHING should be looked at under the microscope of evolution. I think we could come up with better air conditioners, cars, medicines...hell, everything could be better if we approached from a "natural selection" attitude.

Answering the question about medicine needing an evolutionary prospective...I do. I often times think that we (humans) look to much into the short-term and not into the long. By looking at WHY human immune systems react the way they do, not just HOW they react may lead to better methods of dealing with illness. The first thing I would like to see is a shift away from the stigma attached to evolution education. The story about some med students complaining that evolution was "forced on them" is sad. Some aspects of ecology are uncomfortable for me, but as a scientist I explore them and try to gain an understanding. Avoiding evolution, or demonizing it, must not lead to a well rounded scientific mind. I would love to know if my doctor had any kind of evolutionary education before I become a patient. If more people understood evolution, I'm betting they would too. So, education becomes priority number 1.

Understanding human past (and disease past) seems crucial to certain situations. I think doctors could better prescribe less invasive treatments, or more natural ones, if they have an understanding of WHY humans react like they do...take the breast cancer example. As a high school teacher, I shudder at the idea of teens becoming pregnant as a method for fighting breast cancer (not to mention the economic and environmental impact of all those babies!), but knowing how humans evolved could lead to better PREVENTATIVE measures over time.

I think dealing with common ailments like cough and fever might be better handled if doctors AND patients had more knowledge about WHY cough and fever are beneficial. However, we live in an "immediate cure" world and patience and time aren't things we value (some of us do...but many in society want it NOW).

As for the analogy, I WOULD want my mechanic to know the history and evolution of the car I have. Perhaps the older model had a better solution for a problem that the mechanic faces now. If the mechanic understands the evolution of a system, perhaps (s)he could fix the problem quicker/easier/cheaper than if simply going on training. I'm not saying that you HAVE to have evolutionary knowledge to fix it, but it surely must be an advantage.

Here is an article on engineers using Darwin's principle of natural selection for designing analog circuits using Genetic Algorithms. Kinda advanced for my knowledge base of electronics, but I hope it makes my point that everything could be made better through evolution!

www.mrc.uidaho.edu/~knoren/GAs/B-159_paper.PDF