And for bonus points, list other branches of science that evolution has influenced or even created…
…please?
Probably not as much as it should have. With 20/20 hindsight–or foresight informed by evolutionary biology–we probably should have seen the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria coming. (To use the most obvious example.)
The article Evolution and the Origins of Disease by Randolph M. Nesse and George C. Williams from the November 1998 issue of Scientific American is one place to start exploring the topic, with links to several other Web articles.
How many words do you need, and when is the essay due? 
I dunno. He? lists his? occupation as ‘illustrator.’ Maybe this has something to do with an attempt on his? part to debate a creationist and he wants examples.
In which case you could probably toss in all fields with the prefix paleo-
Actually, I am an illustrator, and I specialize in dinosaur art, so I’ve already got the paleo-sciences pretty well covered. And yes, the information is being used for Good.
I’m actually debating someone on another message board; he claims (get this!) that because “evolutionists” do not have all of the answers, that the theory of evolution is speculation, and should not be taught as science. He believes that students in high school should be offered the choice of learning about evolution or creationism, and furthermore he be believes that learning about biological history and origins is a waste of time entirely…because, according to his logic: all theories of origins are speculative-all speculative theories have an equal chance of being right-evolution upsets some people-therefore to appease those who are upset by evolution, it should not be taught as “fact.”
I admit that I’ve been probably too harsh on him; at some point I stopped trying to argue with him in any serious manner and for the most part have been mocking him. Not very constructive or mature, I know. But previous attempts to show that the theory of evolution has shaped modern biological science have apparently been ignored, and he claimed that; “evolution hasn’t done jack for medicine; thank biology, thank genetics instead.”
The link to the Scientific American article was very helpful, thank you…
Well, evolution also explains how hosts and parasites can co-evolve to live together, explaining how diseases jump from a resistant host population to a naive population.
Which explains how the isolated societies of the Americas were decimated by Old World disease, which explains why people living on the two continents speak English, French, Spanish and Portuguese rather than Aztec, Zuni, or Inca.
Were chimps or rhesus monkeys ever used as stand-ins for humans in medical research before the accepted notion that they share common anatomy as primates? If not, that would be one case where the theory of common descent aids in research.
As a side question, I’m trying to find substantiation for an urban legend about the surgeon who transplanted a baboon heart into Baby Fay. As the story goes, the baby might have had a better chance at survival had the surgeon not been a creationist, and open to the idea that a chimp heart would be a better fit, xenotransplant-wise. But he figured one animal heart was as good as another, so the girl died. Were this true, it would be an example of how ignoring the theory of evolution affected medical science – for the worse.
Umm, what branch of science do they they think does “have all of the answers” ?
You have to remember; by all indications, I’m not dealing with a rational human being here. His closing statement in his latest response included phrases like “most modern evolutionists do not support the geologic table” and “unless I see a new species evolve right in front of me, you won’t be able to convince me.”
And yet, as he has said, he is supposedly not a creationist. Therefore I’m concluding that he is either insane, an idiot, or so far advanced as a genius that his ideas only seem insane and idiotic.
Seriously, he either has a very warped view of science or he’s just, well, warped. My question ought to be a way of clarifying this. If it’s the former, then you have at least a chance of nudging him towards a better understanding. Judging by your comments, it’s however the latter. Unless he can articulate his views and objections in terms of something resembling current scientific thinking, then you’re wasting your time arguing with him because there will be no common ground. Galileo managed to frame his originality within what was understood and so did Einstein. As did Darwin. If he’s a genius, so can he …
The question in the OP is about as easy to answer as the question, “How has the discovery of atoms affected chemistry?” As a biologist and medical student, I could sit here and write several pages of examples of how evolutionary theory has affected medicine, and barely scratch the surface. It wouldn’t do any good, though, because the person Cuckoorex is talking about is probably too far gone to help.