This chapter by far has been my favorite (and we're only on the third chapter). It was amazing learning about how a single cell knows how to transform itself to an entire human body. Also, I loved reading about ZPA and the Sonic hedgehog gene. I couldn't believe that the ZPA, just a patch of tissue, could say, "Well this one is going to be a pinky and that ones a thumb, so they have to be in different sizes". Also, I never realized how much our body could depend on the ZPA after reading about the experiment with the foil. Seeing that the cells on the ZPA side was the only side that formed digits was astonishing.
What surprised me the most is how Randy's experiment turned out. At first, I thought Randy was crazy while reading about how he took the embryo of a skate and put in a mouse Sonic hedgehog protein. I thought that his experiment would fail, because I thought that the mouse and skate were too different, and therefore the mouse Sonice hedgehog protein would do nothing, but his outcome surprised me. Depending on how close the rod was to the protein, there were different looking rods. I was confused, but after reading Shubin's closing, it all made sense. The Sonic hedgehog protein does the same job for all species and therefore, the mouse Sonic hedgehog gene affected the rods.
The ZPA and Sonic hedgehog protein (and pretty much reading this book) makes me realize even more how much all living creatures are alike. We may all look different, eat different, act different, but there is something deep inside us that connects us all together and the ZPA and Sonic hedgehog protein is just one example.
-Ellie Chung
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