While reading your article regarding the primitive antibodies found in lancelets, it occurred to me that complex immune systems might be merely a highly specialized, evolved form of digestion. Presumably, evolutionary adaptation would tend to favor a critter that found a way to consume even those nasty, yucky, infectious microbes.
Mel Zernow Colusa, Calif.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.