Sonic the Hedgehog

Sorry I'm late on my post, but I forgot that today was saturday. I never keep track of my days during summer. Anyways, Chapter three got into the technical aspects of Bio that I have difficulties with. E.g. ZAP, DNA, etc. I had to read some sections in this chapter over and over again to understand what Shubin was trying to say. The funny thing is, I actually didn't realize that "skates" were a type of fish till he compared them with sharks. No wonder I didn't stand. I didn't understand how someone could extract DNA out of rollerblades. haha. Anyways, there were alot of fascinating things in this chapter, but the main one that stood out to me was the Sonic Hedgehog. I found it amazingly interesting that just one gene can trigger such a different change in the body. I knew that DNA was a code that establishes the building blocks to our bodies, but I didn't know that just one little gene could determine the difference between having a pinky and a thumb, or having "12 fingers equally alike". The other thing I found fascinating is that our body works as a system during development. Small "on's" and "off's" cause so many different changes. Plus I like how Shubin described his results as a chain reaction. Finding the "inner fly" to find the "inner chicken" to find the "inner skate" was a very complicated process which took place in multiple lab's, but compiled together to reach one conclusion. I look forward to chapter four, Teeth Everywhere!
,Anany
p.s. Hope everyone's having a great summer!