A Primer of Evolutionary Medicine

Stephen C. Stearns is the Edward P Bass Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. A 1967 Yale graduate, he earned an M.S. from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. He was a Miller Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley prior to his first academic appointment at Reed College. In 1983, he assumed the directorship of the Zoology Institute at the University of Basel, Switzerland, returning to Yale in 2000. In addition to Evolutionary Medicine, his books include Evolution: An Introduction; Watching, from the Edge of Extinction (coauthored with his wife, Beverly Peterson Stearns); and The Evolution of Life Histories. A founder of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (and its journal) as well as the Tropical Biology Association, Dr. Stearns has served as President of both. In 2011 he received the Devane Medal for undergraduate teaching from the Yale chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. In 2015 he received an honorary degree from the University of Zurich. His research focuses on life history evolution and contemporary human evolution.

Preface.- 1. Introduction to Evolutionary Thinking.- 2. What is a Patient?.- 3. What is a Disease?.- 4. Defenses.- 5. Pathogen Evolution.- 6. Cancer.- 7. Reproductive Medicine.- 8. Mismatch.- 9. Mental Disorders.- 10. Individual Health versus Population Health.- 11. Open Questions and Other Issues.- References.