1. Title and Author: Survival of the Sickest by Dr. Sharon Moalem with Jonathan Prince2. Why I chose this book: To be honest, I had a few books suggested by classmates that I plan to read over the summer. I ordered them all on Amazon and this was the first to arrive. 3. Book Synopsis: The first chapter focuses on hemochromatosis, a genetic disease in which iron builds up in the body. Although hemochromatosis can be fatal, they think it could have some benefits and that there is a reason it has been passed down for so many generations. Bacteria feed on iron. When a macrophage (part of the immune system) takes bacteria in the blood and sends them to the lymph nodes to be processed by the immune system. There the bacteria feed on the iron contained in the macrophages and multiply. In a person with hemochromatosis, his or her macrophages are deficient in iron. So when people with Epigenetics study chemical reactions and what can affect them. This means that environmental factors that influence the mother's genes or even the father's and grandmother's genes can influence the genetics of the offspring. Moalem gave the example of obesity. A fetus could detect its mother's malnourishing habits and activate genes to store fat. The fetus's body will store fat more efficiently, which may be the cause of the obesity epidemic in the Western world. Moalem also touched on the topic of the Human Genome Project, a six-month global research project in which scientists have mapped the sequence of chemical pairs that make up human DNA and all the genes in the human genome from both a physical how functional. Chapter 8 focused on Elaine Morgan challenging the Savannah theory and instead supporting the aquatic ape theory. There are many statements that support the aquatic ape theory such as: Humans have fat attached to their skin (most land mammals do).