Finding funding for pure evolutionary research is difficult as people view it as

unapplied research. As most funders believed, compared to the research that

ultimately mitigates emergent world crises such as climate change, crop yields,
and human cancer and diseases, evolutionary research is not the priority of
Thesis funding. However, evolutionary research only seems unapplied superficially. Its
Statement impact stretches beyond answering people’s curiosity about how living
organisms become the way they are today. By showing how the study of
evolution revolutionized the understanding across the fields from history, and
human diseases to biochemistry, it’s clear that evolution research is equally
important to fund.

Point 1:
Topic To begin, the methods developed from studying evolution revolutionized other
Sentence fields of study such as history and genetic diseases.
For example, before the development of sequencing ancient DNA for evolution,
the study of history mainly relied on written records, remains of human
skeletons, and architects. However, it’s easy to relate the found human skeleton
to a wrong historical event or to reconstruct the historical event just by
analyzing the shape of the human skeleton. This is what happened in analyzing
the human skeleton found in a well of Norwich, UK that died between 1161 and
1216. Historians once suggested that they died from plague or starvation, but
now with the methods to sequence ancient DNA developed by Svante Pääbo
during his research in human evolution, researchers like Dr. Selina Brace
discovered the similarity between those skeletons and the modern Ashkenazi
Example
Jewish population. Therefore, this finding overthrew the original conclusion
about the individuals were died from the plague but supported they were
murdered by the anti-Jewish riot that took place in Norwich (…). Similarly, the
technology developed in evolution research helped the study of genetic
diseases, as Brace also found that these skeletons already contains sequences of
genetic diseases that are particularly in the modern Ashkenazi populations (…).
This suggested that the bottleneck effect happened not around 500-700 years
ago, as previously thought, but occurred before 1190. Therefore, pure evolution
research that seems to have no impact is still worth funding as its application is
able to revolutionize other fields even if not shown in the short-term.

Evidence

Explanation

More importantly, the application for evolution is not only restrained to

Transition
shedding light on history but also has nonnegligible importance in current
health studies.
Point 2:
When funding research for combatting human diseases, evolution is also
worth funding because the development of the disease itself is a process of
evolution. The benefit of studying the evolution of pathogens such as how
the pathogen evolves its ability to infect humans can help researchers
interfere with such evolution in the future. For example, it is well known that
both SARS-COV-1, which caused 8098 deaths worldwide in 2003, is similar
to SARS-COV-2, which caused more than 3.4 million death worldwide up to
2020, in both viruses use the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) to
bind to human cells (…, …). If not investigating the process of evolution of
how ACEs trait is spreading within the class of Sarbecovirus, it’s likely to
Topic Sentence cause similar disease outbreaks in the future. In fact, by building a
phylogenetic tree and applying the principle of parsimony, Wells from
Columbia University found that SARS-COV-1 obtained the ACE2 trait from
SARS-COV-2 by recombination (Figure 1). This is also supported by the
fact that the two lineages of Sarbecovirus existed in the same place and the
same host in Yunnan, China before the outbreak in Wuhan, China. As a
result, strategies to prevent future diseases can be effectively developed from
evolutionary research such as increasing the surveillance of Sarbecovirus in
Yunnan and the host species. Hence, funding research in the evolution of
pathogens gives substantial insights into the strategies to prevent the next
global health issues.
Example

Evidence

Relationship to A film called “2012”.

Evidence
Explanation

The significance of evolution is not only limited to the study of diseases but
Transition
also increases researchers’ understanding of the biochemistry process.

Point 3
In contrast to the belief that research about evolution and biochemistry are
Topic Sentence separated, funding research about the evolution of biochemical processes
reveals its hidden function.
Example For example, DNA methylation, a process of adding a methyl group to the
cytosine, has been known for a long time to repress the gene and plays an
important role in embryonic development and X-chromosome inactivation
(…). However, Silvana Rošić also discovered that DNA methylation has the
 side effect of damaging DNA by alkylation, which will further cause DNA
mutation. This discovery was made possible by examining why DNA
methylation is absent in the evolution of some species in nematodes. As
species of nematodes that are unable to perform DNA methylation also lack
the gene to correct alkylation (ALKB2 gene) and genetically deletion of
ALKB2 gene caused approximately 15% increase in the rate of cytosine
methylation, Rošić had been able to link DNA methylation to a
unprecedented function-- DNA alkylation damage (…). This discovery is
significant as biologists only identified external DNA alkylating agents such
as tobacco were linked to cancer in Grady and Ulrich’s research in 2007, but
now endogenous DNA alkylation agent was finally identified. Hence,
funding research in the evolution and the driving factor of such evolution of
biochemical processes is necessary.
Evidence

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Evidence
Explanation

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