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How Evolution Affects our Modern Lives. Mitchell Davis. MRSA.
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How Evolution Affects our Modern Lives Mitchell Davis
MRSA MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. MRSA is a germ that has evolved to be immune to the most common line of defense against it, antibiotics. MRSA is a staph infection germ that can not be killed by common treatment. Evolution has transformed the original bacteria into a nigh unstoppable monster of a germ. While small infections are simple to treat, you just have to drain it, severe ones are getting progressively harder to treat effectively. This could be an early sign that bacteria is evolving to be resistant to medicine, and more effective at infecting us and not letting go.
Law Enforcement As most know, DNA fingerprinting are heavily used by law enforcement to catch criminals. What does evolution have to do with this? Well, the human genome has evolved to have three billion base pairs, meaning that, although human’s share about 99.9% of their genes, all humans but identical twins differ with about three million base pairs. Most of your genes have no affect on your phenotype, and these are the ones biologists focus on when looking at your fingerprints.
Sources MRSA: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004520/ Law enforcement: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/060301_crime