chapter six: Of Flies and Men

sorry for the late post this is the only time this whole week I've gotten reception :/

Again in this chapter Shubin really made me realize how humble our beginnings are and how similar our genetic embryo is to many different organisms around the world. For one, the idea that a jelly fish shares the same genes that we have that align our body and create our symmetry is practically i,possible to imagine. A creature with such a simple genetic make-up and body plan shares its origins with a complex bipedal body plan like ours; to encompass this idea is just purely amazing. I really liked how Shubin also compared humans' body plans that depend on genes such as the Organizer or the Noggin with the development of a fly. Flies have the same genes that turn on and off to initiate the development of the axis of the body ans the head and anus as humans do. If you remove a part of the tissue that contains the Noggin or the Organizer and insert it in a developing embryo, you end up with and embryo that had two axis and even two heads. This breakthrough is incredible, because just these two small genes that seem to have simple jobs are crucially in the development of the body plan that includes the axis of symmetry, the head and the anus. The breakthrough itself however, is not that these genes are so incredibly important to the development of the body, but that humans share these genes with an organism such as a fly. Honestly, I really, really enjoy reading this book because it makes me realize that we had simple and humble beginnings, and that we may have more complicated body structures but the complicated plans originated from simple ones. I love learning about evolution and how we as humans can be connected with virtually every living thing one way or another; whether it be a certain DNA sequence or a gene found that helps develop body structure that we all have something in common. I love this book and learning from Shubin as he takes us through the journey of discovering our origins.

Chapter 6

The fact that humans, chickens, fish, reptiles, even jellyfish are all formed from one of the three layers as Shubin mentions is amazing. They all look different and serve different purposes as they become adults, but the limbs, the heart, and many other organs are formed in the embryo stage. Then, Shubin goes on to talk about flies and men. Flies?! I abhor flies, but they are important because mutations in flies helped to reveal that versions of the Hox genes, that scientists were trying to find, appear in every animal with a body. To think that the small, despicable pests around the house as important is shocking. Plus, some having legs where an antenna should have been? Not cute... I found the picture on page 109 to be extremely helpful in understanding how important it was for scientists to find the Hox genes. When Shubin describes genes as a cake recipe being passed down, I understood him completely. He summed up the chapter very well by using a simile that I could relate to. It helped me understand the concept of being similar to jellyfish, which I thought was never possible.

Chapter 6: The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

Chapter six was also an interesting chapter, especially with all of the pictures and diagrams, they really help explain what he's talking about in the chapter. This chapter had alot to do with chapter 3 and how embryos develop over time. The part I found most weird was when he talked about the blastocytes and how some of them implant on the rectum or uterus I had never heard of that so I thought that was interesting. I also thinks its interesting how alot of animals whether mammals, reptiles, birds etc. all essentially begin developing in the same manner. I really liked the hox genes picture with the flies and the human figure it explained alot.
Now off to Chapter 7...

Ch 6

This was an actually pretty interesting chapter. It started off with the same old repetition I've seen. We start off looking the same as any other animal. With the same "body plan" so I wasn't too shocked. What I got more interested in was the experimentation of embryos. First off, the idea of manipulating an embryo was kinda of intriguing to me, as it's a way of changing an animal later on.
But anyways, it's definitely interesting that from simple experimentation, we can find out that from one embryo can come two new organisms. And I can really imagine the size of it, I would just imagine it to be incredibly small. The embryo I mean. And the idea of an Organizer is definitely interesting. I mean, taking a chicken's organizer and attacthing it to a salamanders embryo creates two salamanders? That's pretty cool. And the thing that I've been waiting for to see the comparisons were the hox genes. I think that the idea of it is just awesome how we can find similarities in such simple things.

Chapter 6

I'm so tired today because I played basketball about 6 hours and ran more than 1 mile.....For some people it is nothing but to me it's a lot of exercise. Anyway I begin my homework now!!

When I read chapter 6, I started to think that the story was repeating because the fundamental story of each chapters is almost equal. He mentiones other people's experiment and his experiments and makes some relationship between humman and other creatures. At first time, when I read about some experiments, I was really interested in the experiments but honestly, now I feel whatever......

However, for some experiments, I still feel interesting about them. The author memtioned that just by moving a small patch of tissue in the embryo, Mangold produced twins. When I read this part, I thought some random thing. I thought that if the experiment is developed, then possibly, people who wants twin baby will be able to have twin.

This chapter was not really bad but not really good

Chapter 6

I believe that this chapter should have followed the "Handy Genes" chapter for it basically revolves around genes and what their capabilities are. From these genes that we see in every living organism, the body plans are laid out. Genes carry the "blueprints" for the major construction: humans and every other creatures. What I found interesting was that Shubin even went down lower in the family tree of species and compared humans to jellyfish. The cousins of this creature, the sea anemones, also have a back as humans do. But that is not the fascinating part. The fascinating part is that the genes are the same in humans as in anemones. It is just that these genes were set to do different task, varying on each creature. The entire body plan is created even before humans bear a child. They start off from a single cell. A single cell with the blueprint for an entire body, is just simply amazing.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Body Plans

I liked the picture on page 102 (the one that shows how humans go from being a single cell and end up as a tube) because it helps the reader understand human development. I knew that we came from a single cell, but I did not know we end up as a tube within a tube. Another thing I like about this picture was that it has labels to identify where and what everything is. Without the labels, I would be sort of lost. This chapter was fairly easy to understand, with the help of the pictures of course. I learned a lot about how we develop as an embryo and I learned about how our Hox genes are able to determine our body plan.

- Nirav Patel

Chapter 6

I find it really strange and yet fascinating that all vertabrate animals look the same as embryos. But I was kind of excited that somehow, some way, I looked like my dog for a brief moment in time. Its a complete mind explosion to think that animals that look so different from each other as adults look practically the same as embryos. But he did confuse me for a while when he started throwing out the theories and all the other big names. And then I kind of laughed again when I realized there was a bunch of German discovery on the embryos and that was basically all the big discoveries. The three layers part was an interesting part of the chapter and it made it easier to understand how all organs are made. I thought it was really sad when he talked about how so many things can go wrong in a pregnancy. I felt like I was watching baby week on the Discovery Health Channel. The pictures still remain at the top of my fascination list for this book. ^_^

---alyson

Chapter 6

This chapter is one of the more interesting ones in the book so far. The discussion of how no matter how different the adult species look, the early development stages (first 3 weeks after conception) produce a similar embryo that develops in a similar ways. It seems like all vertebrae animals follow a "blueprint" from day 1 in becoming what they are in month 9.

The step by step explanation of what happens after conception is intriguing, for this is such a marvelous process that takes two sexual cells and slowly produces organs of some sort. Also, the risk of improper attachment to the mother and the chance of improper (ectopic) pregnancy is scary because it poses high risks on the mothers health. The fact that our entire body develops from one small ball implanted into the uterus is even more fascinating. The fetus development development process never ceases to amaze me. Watching a video of this process in other science classes was always spectacular.

Haeckel's theory of the species maintaining its evolutionary history in the fetal stages, going from fish, reptile and mammal stages also seems intriguing, because it has some sense into it, especially since the fetus has a tail at some point.

The experiment where the splitting of the embryo early on makes me wonder if we could do that to people who desire to have twins without repercussions.

Mangold's experiment of removing a small piece to form the rest of the species is reminiscent of those worms that if cut off from a certain section would grow back as 2 separate worms. Could we as humans manipulate our genetic structure to help someone whose arm is missing grow another one just as it did during the fetal stage. The DNA is there, but can we access it?

The amount of possibilities this type of research presents is endless, but the question is, will humans get too carried away and produce destructive mutants?

-- Abdel Albakri

Ch. 6: Best-Laid Body Plans!

Shubin starts out this chapter with basic information we already know. We are made up of cells, we have a certain structure for where our organs go on our bodies, etc. Once again this relates us to creatures like reptiles and fish, which have the same basic body structures. The part about embryos was where it started getting interesting for me. It's pretty amazing that humans' and other species' embryos start out incredibly similar yet end up completely different. I learned about embryos and the development process in Health class two years ago, but I wasn't aware that we at some point took the form of a tube (more specifically, a tube inside a tube). I didn't really get the "ectopic implantation" that Shubin mentioned, but the three tissue layers (ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm) were easy to understand. I preferred Von Baer's approach on embryos better than Haeckel's. It makes more sense to me to compare embryos with embryos. What better way to see the similarities and differences between different species than from the very beginning of their development? The chapter made sense to me up until Shubin started talking about DNA. I understand that the Hox genes line up in a head-to-tail order and that they can be found in several species with similar basic body structures. The rest kind of lost me. Shubin's comparison to the sea anemone was also confusing at first, but it sort of made sense by the end of the chapter. Basically, genes like the Noggin found in sea anemone function the same way as the corresponding genes in other species. The cliff-hanger at the end leaves me intruiged to know how Shubin plans to compare us to creatures without bodies. The concepts Shubin is trying to explain to us are confusing, but I still find it just as interesting.

~Bryanna Streeter :)

Chapter Six: The Best-Laid (Body) Plan

Chapter 6 was the best chapter so far! :) I enjoyed it, and it did not feel like I was being forced too. Even with all this new information, everything was so interesting! Tiny little embryos turn in to animals with trillions of cells. Wow. I like how Shubin talked about the germ layers; it was easy to understand. Shubin also talks about the "ball of cells" that form after conception; it weird how we're lucky to have "our ball of cells implanted in our mother's utereus" (100). LUCKY?! The description of having the fetus develop fully in the rectum or uterus is so sad :(

Specmann's experiment fascinated me; he formed fully developed, normal, salamander TWINS. Just by "pinching one side off from the other" (105). Mangold's experiments were also pretty cool :) How she took patches "where the three germ layers were moving and folding". The picture reminded me of Tetris (everything reminds me of Tetris :( ) The Organizer and Noggin play differnte roles in development; its interesting how genes work together and how they turn off and on.

This chater was fun! :) But I didn't really understand the sae anemone part. Didn't he say in the beginning that we can't even compare humans and jellyfish?!

P.S I want to see a mutant fly!

Chapter 6

Shubin's chapter six was just a plethora of information. But, as usual, I enjoyed his way of present the information. The diagrams had my attention for most of the time though. For me, the chapter was fast paced and I enjoyed his comparison of the sponge to a human. I even had a Spongebob Squarepants Popsicle in honor of Shubin.

Another thing I found interesting was the three layers of germs that are basic keys to the structure of our bodies. The comparison to the flies were entertaining as well.

Ch. 6

How fascinating is that all vertabrate embryos started out the same way but twist and turn into different parts in the future. This reminded me of that picture on ch 5 where the human embyro looked like the shark embryo with the same gill arches. Moving on to the development of the embryo, I was disgusted when I learned that sometimes the baby can grow from the buttocks of the woman. I wish to see this in real life, but my conscience tells me no. The most remarkable discovery that Shubin commented on was Mangold and Spemann's discovery of the Organizer. I would like to see these experiments performed on humans just once to see if humans can grow two heads. Two heads are most certainly better than one. Imagine how fast humanity can progress if everybody had two heads. But why don't humans have two heads? oh well. At first I can see no similarity between the body plans of humans and sea anemones, but Shubin's analysis of the genetics of the sea anemones made me realize that we do have a similiar belly-to-back axis. Now I'm convinced that we are all similar to other living animals somehow.

Is this health class or biology; maybe a little of both?

Shubin recaps the development of the human body to other's such as reptiles, fish, and mammals. He states there are three layers in all of these species that each construct the same, specific part of the body. The ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm each construct the necessities of life including the backbone, the brain, the nervous system, and digestive tract. The history of body development continues to the twentieth century when Hans Spemann discoveredDNA, well at least the idea of it. Later, Hilde Mangold experimented how to create twins but sadly, Spemann took the credit for it upon receiving the Nobel Prize in Medicine. I find it sad that all of Mangold's work was not accredited to the right person until many years later. All their discoveries concluded to one thing, the "three-layered Frisbee" gives species the common general design for every body. In this chapter, Shubin first tells that it is foolish to compare ourselves with a jellyfish, yet towards the end he compares humans to sea anemones, relatives to the jellyfish. Does that mean if we share the same "three-layered Frisbee" we are technically related? Fishy, isn't it? No, just jellyfishy. After all these comparisons to other animals, I feel like a true cannibal; just like Chrisantha.

Chapter 6

Just the fact that we are on chapter 6 in this book completely stuns me. I have no idea where the time went. This fact proves to me that the authors arguement will son be coming to a close. He has walked us through expeditions, showed us the hand verses the fin, explained a little bit about genes, embreyos and so much more. We have seen relations between us and so many animals, but I still am not conviced by this theory. Our embreyos and our genes may be similar but to think that a fly embreyo and genes are so closely related that the author thinks they were involved in our evolution process is completely absurd and quite disgusting. Honestly the fact that we may have evolved from any insect, fish or reptile is replusive to me. I do believe the human race has evolved, as seen through fasion, science, technology and even food, but I believe that it has evolved within its own race not from animals.

Chapter SIX.

This chapter started off with humor as Aarti said. Even though the salamander larvae, fish embryos, fertilized chicken eggs, and human embryos all look the same as cells, we all turn out differently. The fact that every animal organ originated from the three layers just shows that we are all related somehow. The concept of us being a tube is very interesting, how we have a tube-within-a-tube structure. As Shubin continues explaining the three layers it really made sense to me why all animal organs are made the same. When Ernst Haeckel said that “Accordingly, the embryo of a human went through a fish, reptile, and a mammal stage” (103) I was really amazed. I was happy to learn that Spemann’s experiment on the newt eggs resulted in twin salamanders, it was quite intriguing. But Mangold’s experiment was AMAZING, she discovered the Organizer! And the embryo came out with two heads, how cool was that! At first when I read about fly mutations being important, I really didn’t think so, but then turning the page to find that they “tell us why our vertebrae change shape from the head end to the anal end of the body” (108), well that was pretty important. The diagrams were and always have been very helpful :) The Hox gene is very dangerous and can mess with the body plan, but they also proportion our bodies. Just when we thought the Organizer was old news, what were the chances of one of the Hox genes being in the Organizer? This chapter just added one more thing that I didn’t think was important complexities to life :)

- Nikita Patel

[ch6] The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

Reading chapter6 was fascinating, but I was overwhelmbed by the massive amount of new information that was introduced in this chapter. What I found interesting is that finding basic design in primitive animals is more difficult than complex looking creatures. Unless you already know or you are lacking common sense, I believe that it is impossible to actually think primative creatures have more complicated basic design. Anyway, lots of biologists were introduced in this chapter: Baer, Pander, Mangold, and Spemann. Above all, I was mostly surprised to know about Mangold's discovery of Organizer, patch of tissue containing all information. However, I was somewhat disappointed at the lack of specific description on how the discovery contributed in the future biology field.

Jeffrey Jun

During my freshman year, I won a cadaver trip. While I was at the cadaver lab, I was shown a 6-week old embryo of a dog. I thought it was indistinguishable from a human embryo. From this chapter, I learned that every species share the same embryotic structure that later determine their organ system. When the chapter began to talk about newts, I remembered the video we saw in your class. It explained the experiment of splitting cells. Reading that part was kind of like deja vu for me and was quite exciting. How many times can a egg be split? How many salamanders can be created from one egg?
I could not understand Shubin's connection to the sea anenome. I am sorry but I cannot see the connection between complex human beings to backless sea anenome/jellyfish. Can someone explain?

PS. The part about blastocysts/ectopic pregnancy was disgusting and left me questioning its relevancy.

Chapter 6

This chapter was a different chapter from the rest of the chapter I have read from the past. The other chapters were amusing interesting but this chapter was pretty confusing with all the terms referring to the different embryos. At some points I got lost and was re reading the page again, which consumed a little more time than the previous chapters. Not only was this chapter confusing but it was also educational. It taught me how we as humans are related to all the other animals through the three layers which pretty much determine our body structure and the deformities a person can face if the sac of cells is not placed in the correct spot. I was not that astonished that we are related to all most every single living thing in the world because Mr. Shubin starts off with prehistoric fossils, fish, sharks, and etc. I was astonished at that Hilde Mangold was robbed of her Nobel Prize because of a tragic death, but what is great today is that she is still credited. I wonder what surprises chapter 7 has.

Ankit Salhotra

Chapter 6

wooops...
It was interesting that we are related to fish and anemones and stuff through embryos. I learned that the 3 layers determine how the structure of the body turns out. The diagrams in this chapter helped me understand more about what Shubin was explaining. I was sort of disgusted when Shubin compared the genes of humans to the genes of a fly.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 - the best-laid (body) plans

Shubin writes how one shouldn't bother about comparing our body to a sponge. I find that to be a quite obvious observation. As Shubin was amazed by the transformation of cells into birds and such, I also found myself to be amazed and fascinated by this evolution. I also found it interesting that the same three layers helped produce every animal organ, even including the organs and parts of our very own body.

I think it was nice that Shubin explained how we all started out from one cell and then kept multiplying into what we are today. It makes me feel more appreciative toward the miracle of life. At first, I was confused about being a tube inside a tube. However, the picture on the next page definitely helped me understand what Shubin was saying.

Just like the biologists were wondering questions about bodies and their structures, I also had the same kinds of questions running through my head; where do the embryos learn how to build themselves? I was amazed when I read about Mangold and how she was able to change how embryos built themselves by moving the Organizer of another egg onto this egg.

I think it was very interesting that our DNA basically dictates how we look, and if our genes are messed up, then our body plan is messed up as well. I never knew that the Hox genes determine how big parts of our body are as well. I kind of see where Shubin is coming from when he says we are like frogs, especially when he compares us to jellyfish. I think the most important thing I learned in this chapter is that we all have the same body plan; some are just more detailed than others.

chapter 6

Shubin continues in explanation of how humans can relate to every species through genes, structure,embryos, and more. The chapter starts of as interesting and humorous which had grabbed the reader. Shubin then continues to show the similarities in embryos in fish and chicken with skeleton development. Shubin then shows us how the three layers,ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm,are formed in every species. I found this every interesting that these three layers is found in other species too. When Shubin goes on to talk about the various experiments with embryos, it became a little dull. Like always the diagrams saved me from being completely lost. I find my self always going back and reading after looking at the diagram with more comfort in the subject. The chapter ends with a question that leaves us to ponder;How do we compare ourselves with things that have no bodies?. That is a good question and id love to find out the answer in the next chapter.

chapt.6

The beginning of the chapter was pretty straightforward, filled with facts and information. However, the overall facts made it difficult to picture his intentions. Nevertheless he clearly reinforced his ideas and made the reading easier to understand and to picture. Though throughout the chapter was a bit...not mind catching, i was not entirely interested...but a relevant and necessary to learn. Throughout the chapter though, i felt his description of the 3-layers was the most interesting and how everything and everyone is originated from the 3-layers. It makes everything seem like every living creature is somehow related and that we are all not that different. However, frankly, i don't like the idea of being related in the development of a fly, an example he used. its amazing though, how cells so small can develop a living being so large. The complexity and uniqueness of a single cell or embryo is truly a wonder.

chapter 6

Okay, so this chapter was by far the most confusing. All of the terms, and different refrences to us inside embryos was-- difficult to understand. I guess its cool that we are similar (as embryos) to fish and frogs and anemones, but it was not really surprising. This whole book Shubin has been relating humans to anything from prehistoric fish fossils to sharks, and even farther headless animals. I think that the "organizer" was an interesting discovery, and I was dissapointed when I found out that Hilde Marigolde did not get the credit for it. Honestly this chapter was a letdown for me, and made me less interested in this otherwise intersting educational text.

Danielle Field :)

Chapter 6--The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

I felt that Chapter 6 left a different impression on me than the previous chapters. Chapter 6 was more for enjoyment than the specific details and complex details that we encountered the first few chapters. Nonetheless, Shubin was able to give me a better perspective of the development of animals and human bodies. Who would've expected that three germ layers literally determine the entire structure of the body. It's pretty interesting how people understand the general idea of how every living creature is developed, but it's more complex than we think. For instance, I liked when Shubin mentions the similarities humans have with flies.. i felt that it's pretty amazing that the experimenters profoundly analyzed flies.. (something that people don't really have much interest in)in order to obtain genuine information that was beyond our imagination. Once again Shubin never fails to surprise his readers with the contents in his book.

chapter six

This chapter was a lot like the last chapter in seeing "the common plan" in developing embryos like the gill arches, except this time it's with the three germ layers. Shubin again brings up how all creatures are really just variations on a common theme and that we all "started from a generally similar place" (99). Also "we may not look much like sea anemones and jellyfish, but the recipe that builds us is a more intricate version of the one that builds them" (115). Just as in the last, this chapter also focuses on the history of science and first understanding how things or creatures started in the first place, specifically mentioning the history of embryology and the experiments that led to discovery of the Organizer.

I was amazed at the power of the Organizer to create another embryo when grafted onto a different one, and its versatility in taking this gene from a chicken and grafting it onto an entirely different animal such as a salamander to create a twinned salamander (107).

The Hox genes also amazed me because they "establish the proportions of our bodies" (110) and that our bodies are put together so well because of them. Also the Hox genes helped me understand the organization of the body since they affect the part of the body they are located in - the head, middle, or tail segment. Shubin also talks about the symmetry of the body and how "the head is on the forward end, in the direction we typically swim or walk...'anus-forward' wouldn't work very well" (97). I found this interesting because I remember seeing the nautilus animal and how it swims "backwards" because its facing in the direction of where it has been instead of where it is going. (good thing we don't work that way) anyways, this book never fails to surprise me. i'm looking forward to reading on...

Alexis Jacalne

Chapter 6 was a bit interesting. I sort of felt like some of this was a bit repetitive, yet none the less it helped further my understanding so no harm there.

I enjoyed the bit of comedy there was in this chapter when he mentioned trying to compare a human to a sponge.

The three germ layers was pretty neat as well it isn't too difficult to remember, ectoderm, endoderm, mesoderm.

Another cool thing was there was practically a tube within another tube. I also liked the experiment where Mangold produced twins.

I also found the face in the front, anus in the back funny because I never really bothered to look at it that way. It's interesting how it's symmetrical with top/bottom, left/right, front/back.

Ch. 6

Ch. 6 to me really opened my eyes about how we as humans develop as embryos. At first, i just thought if all went well we'd implant on the uterine wall of our mothers as a blob of cells then multiple into who we were as babies. But from Ch. 6, it showed me how complexer the process is. that after implantation, we as a blob of cells will soon flatten and turn into a complex three layer tube responsible for the whole structure of us as fetuses/embryos and ultimately, how we'll turn out as adults.
The study of both Spemann and Mangold amazed me. By removing just one microscopic section of an embryo, the tissue containing the organizer gene, you have the ability to create another developing embryo, a twin as Shubin said. It just shows how powerful our bodies are, being able to create an entire developing embryo with a tissue containing only but a small handful of genes inside it. Also, i found the discovery of the hox genes interesting as well. These genes are present in every organism with a body and are specifically arranged so we have the head to anus axis when we develop. This helps reinforce the theme that humans are related to almost every creature in this world with only modifications of their genes.
And lastly, the creature were related to in this chapter is... the sea anemone. Who knew that such a simple organism can be related to us in terms of the head to anus axis structure. The reason we're structure the way we are is because of these sea anemone with only a more modified structure. I'm excited to see how were going to be related, as shubin said, to the even simpler being, the microbe.

Chapter Six

In the beginning of Chapter 6, the author had illustrated about the embryos of many kinds of animals. One of the points he mentioned, which I thought it was quite interesting, was that some of the animals’ embryos were not many differences, but they had all grown out and become various animals. In fact I’ve never thought about how animals were so similar when they were embryos. So I was wondering if all of us; including other mammals and reptiles, had similar embryos, and might have been evolved from the same kind of creature. This means, maybe, once we were relatives since we had the same ancestor.

On the other half section of this chapter, Mr. Shubin had brought up that all kinds of animals contained the organizer, which helped us with the development of inside body parts, and had many remarkable meanings. One of the most significant meanings about the organizer was happened at the middle part of genes of its DNA. These parts of the genes were called the Hox genes. There was a special finding about Hox genes which attracted me very much. The author had pointed that most of the animals contained the similar sets of Hox genes. That’s why, some of the animal’s embryos look similar because of the common sets of the Hox genes they contained, but why did they have the different outcomes? The author had answered this question by explaining that it is because the amounts of the common sets are different, and that’s why the outcomes are not likely. So now, we could understand why different species of animals have their own unique looks. The other main finding that I could not even think about it before read this chapter was that some of the animals’ embryos look similar. Amazing!

chapter 6

So this chapter managed to get a bit technical again which threw me off for a while. I found it fascinating how so many different types of beings are so similar in their earlier stages. It is amazing how three simple layers, the ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm can link us together with all other living beings. The experiments conducted by Hilde Mangold really reminded me of chapter three and all the experiments done on the shark and chicken eggs. Also once again the whole idea of animal testing didn't really fly by me, but the information gathered through it was rather interesting. The one thing that really freaked me out in this chapter was the mention of blastocyst implanting in the wrong place. I think the whole description of a baby being formed inside the mothers cavity or fallopian tubes made me a little sick. Why was this even relevant to the topic of how our body is formed? The final thing i found interesting was the mutation within the flies. Creating a whole population of mutant flies in order to figure out the genetic mutation that causes it was very innovative and the out come was fascinating. I thought it was amazing how our body lined itself up into a pattern of genes that conduct the formation of out structure so our head is in the front and our anus is in the back.

Chapter 6

Like Ellie said, I enjoyed reading about the three germ layers. It's amazing how these three layers form ALL the structures in our body. It's even more amazing how the ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm all form the same structures in different species. It's hard to believe that embryos of different species have such similarities and how different creatures are actually so alike in the beginning stages. I also enjoyed reading about what happens when blastocyst implants on the wall of a uterus, and Shubin's description of it as looking like a Frisbee. It was interesting to learn that our ENTIRE body forms from the tiny portion of the ball "mushed into the wall" (101).

It's also amazing how Mangold placed a patch from one embryo onto another and formed into a whole new body. As I was reading it, I couldn't help but think of how difficult it must have been for Mangold to work with such tiny structures. She must have had VERY fine control of her hands and fingers.

I was also excited to finally understand how Hox genes are what make bodies built in "head-to-tail organization" (109). I had always wondered how such order was developed in what I had previously thought of as "just a bunch of cells".

Francine Castillo

Ch. 6 - The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

Although Chapter 6 was a little complicated, it was more enjoyable after I started to understand the content. Once again, the importance of embryos come up again in this chapter as well. Animals are all different after they've all developed but if you compare them in the embryo stage, there are fundamental similarities that can be found. I thought the description of the development of the human embryo was very interesting when it was used to explain the comparisons. Features like the tube-within-a-tube arrangement explained in the process is shared by most animals during the embryo stage.

The experiments that early scientists conducted to obtain more information about embryos was amazing. However sometimes the outcomes such as the mutations that resulted in the living creatures was a bit eerie and sad. For me, the climax of this passage was when it got to the part about flies and hox genes. I remember learning learning about hox genes in biology as well as using fruit flies in many problems and experiments. It brought some familiarity and helped me to understand furthermore. The hox genes is what makes us similar to exotic creatures like sea anemones. I thought the last sentence of the chapter was a great transition and page turner to the next chapter that links to the overall idea.

Les Corps

This chapter brought back so many fond memories of chapter three. This chapter discussed the complex ideas of bodily organization. However, it seemed to have so many connections to chapter three. I suppose that since both chapters divulgei nto the ideas of DNA, they would have several things in common. The most apparent seemed the correlation between Noggin and BMP-4, and Sonic hedgehog and ZPA. Both work together to either turn off or on and create a specific part of the body. ZPA and Sonic Hedgehog could result in doubling our digits, and Noggin and BMP-4 can do the same thing to our bodies. It is interesting how our genes work together to make sure that our bodies develop in an orderly fashion. This is something that captivates me, aside from the horribly extensive embryotic research involved.

In addition, it was nice to know that the numbver three is not only important in literature, but in our bodies as well. The three layers of tissue that later form the endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm are obvious. This was the easiest thing to grasp; however, it supports the idea that our bodies develop in an orderly fashion. The one thing that confused me was the organizer.

If the organizer directs our bodies into creating itself, than why do our bodies have cells that form three specific tissues. I think I can answer my own question, our bodies start off as a cluster of cells that all hold the organizer. Thus, separating the cells creates twins. However,as our embryos mature the organizer directs specific cells around to form in specific ways.

This chapter was a bit difficult to comprehend, but with careful reading I was able to decipher the cryptic terminology in this bloody book. Au Revoir.

Chapter Six;

Body development and embryos are discussed throughout the chapter non-stop. Shubin did make me think how does the development of the body end up the way it is, such as having the head at the front and the anus at the end. It is amazing how DNA does not make a mistake.

I like how Shubin starts to compare how the body develops by using the jellyfish as an example. And from this example I learned that jellyfish do not have an end but only a front.It made me think, what if humans were made that way. It would be just too weird.

The whole three layer tissue dynamic got me stunned. Tissues are not always big, but knowing that tissues also have a role in helping the body develop was pretty mind blowing as well.

-Briana Fauni

Chapter 6- The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

As mentioned by other students, chapter six focused on body development and the similarities that are shared amongst other species. He explained the three layers of tissues that make up all of the organs inside our bodies. Being a slow learner, at first it was hard for me to understand the process that takes place in which the body is developed. He explains by saying that we are a tube inside of another tube in the process of development. This must mean that the different layers have separate responsibilities throughout its process in many species.
I enjoyed reading about the different fly mutations and it was interesting to think that flies have been studied for over 100 years. Something that I see as so irrelevant is something that is a over-analyzed topic for these researchers for many years. As I'm typing this, there is fly buzzing around in my room.. and I can't help thinking about swatting it, then checking to see if it's mutated or not. :)
I also enjoyed the pictures that Shubin included as part of the chapter once again. All in all, I am really enjoying this blogging experiment!

Chapter Six

It's pretty common knowledge that our body is made up of many cells, but to find out that we are made up of about two trillion cells is astonishing. As Shubin talked about the body plan of humans and various creatures (especially in the embryo state), I was able to visualize what he was talking about thanks to my kindergarten/first grade teacher, Mrs. Simpson. At my elementary school, in kindergarten and first grade we hatched little chicks and ducklings and then put them on display for open house. We only did this for a few years though, but luckily I was a part of those years. To incorporate education into this exciting adventure, we were taught how the chicks and ducklings develop as an embryo until they eventually hatch. Having seen and learned about the diagrams and information that Shubin presented in this chapter made this chapter more interesting and much easier to understand.

I think it is amazing that you can take a tiny piece of tissue (the Organizer), move it, and create a whole new creature. Scientists discovered a way to create twins at their command. By reading this book, I am realizing just how complicated the human body and everything involved in producing it is.

I am interested in finding out how Shubin is going to connect and compare humans to single-celled microbes.

Hearing

Well, this chapter was a little bitter sweet for me, because although it was short, it's the last of the short ones. I looked ahead to the last one, and it's super long, so I've decided to read it tomorrow rather than to finish it today. This chapter was pretty cool though. I saw it as kind of the link between our origins from fish to mammal. It was pretty interesting to learn that we have three inner ear bones versus the one that many other animals have, for example, reptiles or most fish. Most of the amazement I used to get from learning that bones moved and changed over time has kind of worn of since the beginning of the book, but it's pretty interesting that our ear bones have transformed from being used for chewing to helping us hear. I also liked the explanation that Shubin gave about the inebriated person, so know I know why drunk people get spins, lose their balance, and get hangovers. Finally some useful knowledge! Haha.

Chapter 6 : The Best - Laid (Body) Plans

I actually kind of liked this chapter. Again its interesting how Shubin compares the human body with animals that are completely different from us. I like how Shubin talks about embryos and how they look generally alike. I learned how all the embryos have three layers and that got me thinking. I though that how can we be so different when we all start out the same? But then Shubin explains it thoroughly which helped me to understand it. In "experimenting with embryos" I was even more fascinated when Shubin started talking about Spemann's experiment with the salamander embryo and his daughter's hair. This was so interesting because I remember my freshman year in Mr. Tisor's class, he show us a video that visualized this experiment. I was like WHOA I know this! And just by moving a tissue from one embryo to another could make a twin? This was truly amazing. I wonder what would happen if you put a tissue inside of a tissue inside of another tissue. Then would that make a triplet? When the book started to talk about flies, I kind of lost my interest because they are so annoying and I don't know why flies even exist. But the Hox genes kind of sounds cool because they organize your body plans. I just thought that when Shubin compared us to a sea anemones, that sounded weird because I still don't think we are that similar. This chapter overall was an interesting chapter and I liked all the fascinating information.

- Joo Won Jang

Chapter Six: The Best-Laid Body Plans

As everyone has mentioned, this chapter was about the similarities we share with other species when it comes to our body development. I found it really interesting to read about the three germ layers. It's fascinating yet strange how the three layers work the same magic in all different types of species. As I kept reading, Shubin mentioned how the Organizer is similar to the things he talked about in Chapter 3, and thats when I got confused. If someone can clarify, I'm just confused about the differences between the Organizer, ZPA, and the Sonic Hedgehog Gene... Though I got confused, I always find it interesting to read about the experiments scientists have done. I have major props to Hilde Mangold with her experiment on the salamander embryo, she certainly did have some skill to do that. Also, reading about the fly mutations was cool, espcially seeing the diagrams. I don't think I will ever be able to express how much I love the pictures and diagrams Shubin puts in the chapters.

-Ellie Chung

Ch6. The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

I was a bit confused upon reading this chapter the first time, but after taking my time reading over it, I think I sort of understand what Shubin is talking about. However, I am still confused about the relationship between the Organizer and other genes such as the Noggin. Is the Noggin a type of Organizer gene that works with other Organizer genes?

The thing I found most interesting about the chapter was that scientists have been studying mutant flies for over one hundred years! Shubin describes the mutant flies as if it is common to see one. Perhaps the next time before I swat the fly in my house, I'll check if its mutated or not. I was surprised how a sea anemone has the same type of Noggin as land dwellers, even it being interchangeable among embryos. Also I was surprised how moving an Organizer from one embryo to another could form twins. Does the embryo missing the Organizer still develop though?Reading this chapter really left me with a lot of questions, something that was not characteristic of the other chapters.

Chapter Six: The best-laid (body) plans

This chapter was sort of confusing or maybe overwhelming. At first Shubin describes his process of comparing embryos. It would be fascinating to see the process, although I know somewhat of it, if would be cool seeing the process day to day. He explains how the fish, amphibian and chicken embryos look alike which is sort of hard to believe but hey I gotta believe it..he proved it.

Shubin states: " No matter how different the species look as adults, as tiny embryos they all go through the same stages of development (100)"
I find this really incredible, how we all looked the same and even animals in a way. Throughout this Chapter, Shubin goes on and explains this. He mentions that we look like Frisbees...HAHA..uhmm Frisbees. Odd and amazing. LOL.

Its astonishing that we are all formed by the endoderm, ectoderm and mesoderm. The diagrams helped me visualize the concept that Shubin was trying to explain. Haeckel's diagram on page 103 flabbergasted me! We were TUBES..sort of! Lol. And the three layers.
AND..who knew we can connect to FLIES! "of flies and men" lol.
Again, the Diagram on 109 helped me understand this ^ concept.

The hox genes, another thing that we all have..sort of. "versions of the Hox genes appear in every animal with a body(110)". Dang, that is SO werid and cool. We compare to animals so much! :)
I cant wait until Shubin compares us to Single-celled microbes...I wonder how his gonna do that.

Chapter 6: I was a tube inside a tube. LOL?

Like a lot of people pointed out such as Ian Tang, Kevin Chun and Jayden Min pointed out, this chapter is mainly about the development of our bodies from the 3 Germ layers: ectoderm (outer), endoderm (inner) , and mesoderm (middle). Here Shubin, also makes a point that connects to his previous chapters; he says, again, that we can trace our development back to animals as simple as the sea anaemoe which at first glance seems to have little to no connection with us, but with close observations, scientists have discovered similarities. This connects back to all the other chapters because, he stated earlier in the book that we started out as simple creatures, but as the earth changed, we also had to change to adapt and as a result, within many generations, our genes have been modified (to help us adapt) to create humans as we know them today.

I love the analogy that Shubin uses at the end of the development and progress of embryology is like a cake; it is so true! As I learned in 9th grade biology "the progression of science occurs when scientists build off of the discoveries of previous scientists"; this concept is illustrated through the experiments of Von Baer, Pander, Mangold, Ed Robertis, Martindale, and Finnerty as Von Baer and Pander ignited the following experiments with their observation of embryos and similarities among every single embryo with a body, Mangold hyped up public about when she discovered the Organizer, Ed Robertis revived the heat about the Organizer just as it was dying out and Martindale and Finnerty concluded this experiment by connecting our embryos and body structures to that of creatures who do not even present a near resemblance of humans such as an anemone.

- Ejay Yuan

Chapter 6 - The Best Laid (Body) Plans

This chapter was very informative with a lot of details and important facts. Instead of the chapter being boring and dull because of all the vocabulary terms and information it was actually really entertaining and exciting to learn about the outstanding process of how embryos develop. Shubin described the process in little words which made it easy to understand, he said "as the embryo got bigger, the yolk, its food supply, got smaller and smaller. By the time the yolk was gone, the embryo was usually big enough to hatch" (pg. 98). I was like WOW! that's really easy to comprehend because Shubin did not make it complicating by using big words. I really find it helpful that Shubin gives us many examples to relate from like when he talks about the chicken and how it develops. By giving all these examples we the audience are able to learn more about different animals and how they form and this makes the text wayyy more interesting! I found the three layers quite fascinating (ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm). The diagram on pg. 102 was helpful because it showed how we transform from one cell to more cells and then to a tube. And then the diagram on pg. 103 showed the three layers and where they are present in the tube. The Organizer was also fascinating which contained information that was able to form an entire body plan and inside the Organizer is DNA (once again DNA comes into the picture lol). I found it astonishing when Shubin started to talk about how some mutant flies have limbs growing out of their heads, duplicate set of wings, or extra body segments. That's reallyy sad!Poor flies.. :(

Chapter 6

Chapter 6
I didn’t like this chapter because he started talking about evolution again and I strongly do not believe in evolution. In this chapter he explains about how animal’s embryos are similar to humans. He also explains that there are three different layers of tissue in embryo that makes up the organs and tubes. I guess it was interesting to read about embryo and the tubes.

of flies and men :P

In this chapter the main concept that "all organs can be traced to one of the three layers of tissue in the developing embryo. Particularly mind boggling about this concept is that is depicts just how neat the formation the human body is as before learning this I would not even know where the human body would begin. Its organization doesn't end there either as all the layers correspond to organization of the human body for example the endoderm controls the formation of many inner structures of the body.

As Shubin delineates ideas about fundamental questions about our bodies. What interested me was how Mangold's discovery of the Organizer as that infinitesimal piece of tissue could have such a complex information as to how to create the human body.

This chapter also reminded me about just how useful flies are as scientists used them for countless genetic experiements. These tiny pests are the ones that pave the path to understand the mysteries the major body plan genes active in the human embryo.

When Shubin talked about our similarities with sea anemones this also made me think about evolution and how far its domain reaches as Martindale and his colleagues proved that we share the inner recipe with even the utterly different jelly fish.

-Kevin Chun

Eyes

So, I'm beginning to see a trend among the chapters that deal with senses. They all are fairly short. This is a trend that I definitely like. Well, now to the subject at hand. I found it pretty astounding that that larval salamanders' soft tissue fossilized just like bone or teeth. To see fossils like the ones Niel saw in China must have been an amazing moment for him. Especially the 160 million year old salamander fossil that still had an eye. That's crazy! What I liked most about this chapter is how the reader really got to see that archeologists don't learn about the history of creatures just from bones, but they use a complex system of inductive reasoning to reach a conclusion. This was seen in the way that Shubin came to the conclusion of color vision in monkeys millions of years ago, and why it was an adaptation that they acquired. I see this as an especially large accomplishment since he had no monkey eye fossils of which he could go off. He only used his knowledge of the change of the appearance of plants and current monkey eyes.

Chapter six: The Best Laid (Body) Plans

So im sitting in the plane reading this chapter, and honestly i got kind of sleepy when I read it. It basically explains how the bodies of many many other creatures are similar in the developing of the embryo. Besides primitive animals like the jelly fish, most creatures consist of the "front/back, top/bottom, and left/right"(97) organization of the body. Then, Shubin discusses the findings of Karl Ernest von Baer and his experiments on chicken embryos. This led Shubin to discover that the specific layers of the chicken embryo are found in other animals as well. He also brings up DNA again, where he mentions the hox gene which is responsible for mutations. This was a strange chapter, but mabye because I was distracted by the movies playing on the plane. I wonder if blogspot is banned in China.

Ian Tang

Chapter 6: The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

What surprised me was how the three germ layers that Mr. Shubin introduces are the basic foundations for the growth and development of almost every animal--or I guess all of them. As I was reading, especially about the formation of the tubes after conception--particularly the tube inside the tube part--I was thinking, "Man, I wish the dude would put up pictures of this tube 'cause this is seriously confusing." To my surprise, the picture was on the next page. Talk about convenience! Then I realized that the tube in the tube is our digestive tract and how there's just a tube that runs down through our body. Until then, I was thinking that we were just a small chunk of cells. I would have never guessed right away that we become tubed-tubes.

The way that flies' genes and our genes are parallel and so similar makes me wonder what would happen if we played around with our genes to make us end up having legs coming out of our heads. But that would be cruel, and I'm sure flies would think of us as cruel, too. hahaha.

The turning on/off of the genes is quite the clever contraption. It's an ingenious "thing" that makes our bodies so ideal.

In the Anemone section, is Mr. Shubin saying that sea anemones aren't as developed as we have? That we, as we were anemones, have gone major reconstruction, just as the nerve cables in our heads? And does Noggin just give embryos extra structure?

Chapter 6, When we were Tubes.

This chapter got me thinking about a different career choice. Architecture. As Shubin talks about how the body is laid out from a single blastocyst, it really fascinates me how this tiny structure eventually shapes who we are and what we look like. If you think about it, at one point of our creation, everyone looks exactly the same, and then the codes in our DNA shape who we become differently. The other thing that really got me thinking was the fact that just by moving a small patc of tissue in the embryo, you can create twins. It's also crazy that we have 39 Hox genes which we can use to relate our bodies to practically any other creature on earth. Shubin does it in detail with flies. I was flipping throught the pages of the book ahead, and I found that the other chapters that are coming up seem to be a little more interesting, so I'm looking forward to that.
, Anany

Chapter 6 - The Best-laid (body) Plans

The beginning of this chapter was really boring as Shubin started out speaking about the similarities between human bodies and the bodies of animals. Most of this I had already known. As I continued reading, the chapter became surprisingly interesting as Shubin began speaking about the 3 layers of tissue in the embryos that humans share with animals,how each layer created different body parts such as the heart, brain, and skeleton, and how the embryo changes to a tube within a tube. I also found it interesting how the embryo developed inside a woman's body. This was something I didn't really know at all. I also found this chapter somewhat funny when Shubin spoke about how it's possible to mess with an animal's Hox genes and alter the animals body.

Chapter Seis - Tu Inner Pescado (:

I AM A JELLYFISH :D Okay, now that that's out of the way, I actually enjoyed this chapter. I liked learning about how there are different genes that say, "Hey. I am the top, you are the bottom. I'm going to turn you off to keep it that way". I thought it was pretty cool. Again, the frog with a double head or a double spine thing was pretty trippy.

I liked how he explained HOW we were similar as embryos and not just say a bunch of words to the point of "We just are, deal with it". He's like that a lot. It makes the book more enjoyable for me. I understood it when he said, "We may not look much like sea anemones and jellyfish, but the recipe that builds us is a more intricate version of the one that builds them" (115). It really wrapped up the chapter for me, full circle, from the first page of the chapter, because that was basically what he was explaining - how all species come from the same genetic make up in some way, shape, or form.

And you know what, I CAN COMPARE MY BODY WITH A SPONGE ANYDAY. But yeah, it would be more psychiatric then anatomical - thanks for pointing out my flaws Shubin.

- Courtney Inbody

Chapter 6 - Double Tube

Shubin, you still fascinate me everytime I read your book, even if it is at 12:10 a.m. This chapter focused on how the body is developed and how the different sections of it don't duplicate itself, etc. All our organs are developed from three important layers of tissue that appears in our second week after conception: the ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm. I did not know that these three layers of tissue could form all our organs. CRAZY STUFF. What also made me go, "whattt?!" is the part where Shubin explains that we are a tube inside a tube in development. I could not imagine myself as a tube. He then goes on to explain what activates this body development. Many genes act together to organize the body plan. For example, the Noggin gene turns off signals in cells that would make it a "bottom" cell while another gene does the complete opposite. This section and the part where he talked about Hox genes took me a little bit longer than usual to understand, however. Overall, this chapter was very interesting as usual!

-BryanMunar

Chapter 8

This is probably my favorite chapter so far. Not because it intrigued me or anything like that, it's just really short. Eight pages, I think. That's a huge turn around from the previous upwards of twenty paged chapter. Regardless, there where some points that drew me in just like most of all the other chapters. First, I had no idea that the process to extract DNA from something could be so easy and done in your kitchen, not a high tech laboratory. It'd definitely be something fun to try. Just a bit messy though. Another interesting point in this chapter was what the chapter was actually about: ability to recognize odor. I never really thought about it, but that's pretty crazy how animals can smell under water. I don't know why, but it just seems like a pretty cool thing to me. Most of all though, the most interesting thing i learned in this chapter is that our olfactory genes take up three percent of our genome but we barely use a couple hundred of them! Then again, not having such an acute sense of smell definitely comes in handy in some smelly situations, and I'd take better vision over smell any day.

Chapter 6: The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

Honestly, this chapter started off as neither boring nor very interesting. I only thought it kind of interesting how Shubin began comparing organisms' body structures to one another. Shubin's descriptions of the three layers which formed the same structures in every species helped me better understand what he has been trying to explain all through this novel. How the embryos of all different species go through the same states of development really explains how God has connected all of his creations. One interesting part of this was when Shubin began explaining what can happen if a blastocyst implants in the wrong place. This chapter began to become interesting when Shubin brought up the start of our bodies developing as embryos. This quote got me interested in this particular chapter: "Our entire body forms from only the top part of this ball, the part that is mushed into the wall" (101). I had to read this sentence twice to really get a grasp on what Shubin was saying. I thought to myself: "Wow! Really? I started off just a little oval Frisbee?. Later, Shubin brought of experimenting with embryos, and that was when I became really interested. Hilde Mangold ability to transplant a tiny piece of tissue from one part of the embryo and graft it onto the embryo of another species all with her fingers amazed me. The pictures of this really helped me to understand what happened to the transplanted embryos.

~Caroline Eskander

Bodybuilding

So, after the readers learned about the plans for bodies, the importance of their DNA, and all that other good stuff that goes along with biology and the complexities of bodies, we go into the subjects of when, why, and how bodies arose in history. The fact that bodies have only been present in the world for less than a billion years astonished me when I first read it. Even more surprising was the comparison that Shubin provides. That if the Earth were seen as being a year old, bodies had barely shown up on December 31. This comparison really puts the fact that bodies are a fairly new phenomena for history into perspective. So, this being the when, the chapter then moved onto the how.

I thought this to be the most complex part of the chapter, thus being the hardest part to understand. Especially with no comparisons that would suddenly simplify the idea like that of the when, this subject of the chapter was no easy task. With this said, the actual ideas of how are mainly that cells and microbes changed and advanced to form hard parts, soft parts, and other parts of bodies that all serve different purposes but work together to accomplish one thing: life. To me this seemed a simple concept but was comprised of the complexities mentioned earlier. It was pretty interesting learning that all these little pieces of bodybuilding have been used in the most primitive of bodies and even the most complex; our own. This all explained the rise of the body, but why? Survival. Simple huh? Not really. That's what I though when I first read Shubin's explanation of why. It was a bit more complicated than that. Turns out that along with survival the abundance of oxygen was the key to the sudden popularity of bodies.

Chapter 6 - Peeling Back the Layers

In the beginning, Shubin basically explains what most biology students already know: animals that are very diverse look similar when they are embryos. He also tells of the findings of Karl Ernst von Baer, who discovered that all organs in a chicken embryo were identified to a specific layer of tissue. Once he and his partner figured this out, he began to look for the same pattern in other animals--and he was right.

When I got to the part where Shubin describes how our basic shape forms, I was pretty confused. The picture on the next page helped a little, and the diagram on page 103 was even better (looks a little like ET though!). We have three main layers that form: 1) ectoderm, which forms the skin/nervous system; 2) endoderm, which has the inner structures of the body; and 3) mesoderm, which has much of our skeleton and muscles. Hilde Mangold was able to find a tiny piece of tissue that, when cut and reattached, would form twins. This, of course, was the DNA.

Shubin started to talk about DNA again, and he lost me a little. DNA is a hard concept to grasp. I eventually figured out that the structure of DNA responsible for mutation is called the hox gene, which appears in every animal with a body. Shortly after the hox gene was discovered, scientists searched for the chemical that produced the entire body plan. Finally, Richard discovered the director of genes: the Noggin. The Noggin does not actually form anything; rather, it works with other genes. The Noggin actually goes to the cells at the "top" and turns the signal off that makes them "bottom" cells.

To be honest, this chapter was as difficult, if not harder, to understand than the DNA chapter. Was it just me, or did anyone else find this hard to understand?

~Megan Hsiao(:

Ch5

This was the hardest chapter, so far, to read. Actually to understand. At first, it was simple, until he started going onto the number of certain nerves such as the trigeminal and facial nerves. But then I understood what he meant, when he started explaining about his building that was built a long time ago. That our nerves are so jumbled up, and that it all goes back to our past. Which is sort of a theme in this book. Another thing I didn't understand was the embryo part. It got confusing as he started explain the process of how an embryo grew. I didn't understand until he said our body is segmented. An interesting part is that how a human embryo is really closely resembled to a shark embryo. Especially how our arches are the same.

Chapter 5: Getting Ahead

"A jumble becomes part of a simple plan, and you feel you are seeing right through something to find its essence" (82). The cranial nerves that twisted toward difference muscles and sense organs gave Shubin (and me), the "willies". The human head seems like a "bewildering mess", but everything has its own purpose. The cranial nerves which "take tortuous paths through he head" and "exit the brain into a bewildering network of branches" interested me (83). I would like to see how my head looks like on the inside. It would probably be gross too, but how our brains(and everything else) is developed form "a big glob" is weird. Why do two different nerves, which innervate entirely different parts of the face and jaw, send branches to ear muscles that lie adjacent to one another?" (84). The analogy to the wires, cables, and pipes was helpful in understanding how complex it is inside our heads and how each thing has its own job.

Every time I read a chapter, Shubin teaches me something (which is everything) new. The shift of the topic from nerves to arches confused me a bit. But it’s cool how they develop jaws, ears, and our throats and how "children born with first arch syndrome have a tiny jaw and nonfunctioning ears with no malleus or incus bone"(89). Well, it’s not COOL, but it’s interesting :) And also how "children are born with an actual vestige of an ancient gill arch cartilage..."(91). Well, it is only physical similarities; our brains are much more complex than animals right? :)Shubin claims that "our head may look incredibly complicated...but it is from a simple and elegant blueprint" (93). I have a hard time believing this because this chapter was not...simple. Nevertheless, it was interesting.

Ch. 5: Getting a Headache?

Haha just kidding, I don't have a headache. I just needed a clever title. :D

Before starting this chapter, I didn't know much about the structure and complexity of the human head. The way Shubin described the cranial nerves (particularly the trigeminal and facial nerves) was straight forward and fairly easy to understand. I'd better remember it in case I take an anatomy class in the future. It was interesting to find out which nerves perform what functions. The arches and indentations were also a new concept for me, although they were more confusing. It surprised me that Shubin spent the majority of the chapter focused on human anatomy. It was even more surprising when he started talking about Amphioxus like worms. Now that I think about it, it would make sense to include them since it would help demonstrate a connection between headless organisms and those that have heads. Shubin effectively uses all sorts of creatures to show how almost all animals can trace their origins to fish, not just humans. I thought it was pretty cool to find out that sharks and humans are so similar with the way their heads are structured. So if our indentations didn't close up, it'd be like having gills? I feel like I can call myself part shark.

~Bryanna Streeter :)

We should use our differences for the better.....

"We're all modified sharks-or, worse, there is a lawyer inside each of us" (90).
The statement above made me contemplate the nature of human beings. Although we start off almost identically with sharks (and for that matter, almost every other specious of animals), the human brain has evolved so that we are highly capable of thought, emotion, and reason. Shubin does his job as a biologist/scientist to show how humans biologically came about and the resemblence between humans and sharks/fishes, we-as readers, as highly capable beings full of potential, as AP/IB students, should be able to seperate ourselves from sharks/fish.
Anatomically, we might be similar as vicious sharks, but that doesn't mean that we should let that affect our humanity. The world isn't a kill or be killed world that only beasts live in. Our brains are way to developed and intricate to resort to that. However, it is impossible to study humanity without bloody wars and acts of inhumanity.
On a postive note, our intelligence allows us to have some humility. For example, throughout the chapters, Shubin constantly explains how humans are related to other animals, even fish. Our hands,arms, legs and even heads are alike. I think that everybody should read this chapter to understand that people aren't structually much different from animals.
However, we are different intellectually and since we have much more impact on the world, we should use that intelligence to change the world for the better.

Jennifer Kim

I thought I already had a head?

I found the dissection of the human heads kind of gruesome. The brutal language such as "crushing" and "sawed" gave me the similar feeling of "the willies". In relation to fish, however, Shubin describes how humans use their heads to control bodily functions such as moving of the eyes and smelling; two functions that fish don't seem to have. Fish do not blink or have the overlapping vision like humans but apparently still have the same head structure as humans'. As he continues on about the different nerves and such, Shubin attempts to relate it to wires and other technical things, which I find unnecessary.

When Shubin began to discuss the different arches of the facial structures, I became extremely confused. The development of an human embryo and a shark embryo are similar yet produce two entirely different species. I was surprised to find how close each arch resembled the other in the early stages of embryonic development. After the basic animal's structure was developed I didn't understand the gills part of the chapter and how it relates to humans. Although sharks and humans share the arches what causes the gills to form versus lungs and even as adults do we still share the arches or do they differ just like their physical appearances. From headless to headed and embryo to adult, do nerves/arches truly show a resemblance or is it just a necessity for all living creatures even prehistoric one? I'm fully interested in this, at first thought boring, documentary on my inner fish.

Girl your first arch is looking good!

I thought this was one of Shubin's most interesting chapters because he concentrated manly on the human anatomy rather than a fish's or a shark's. True, he did mention some parts of the anatomy of both and how human embryos are closely related to them but still he really made this chapter different. Instead of starting off with a Steve Irwin liked adventure out in an excavation ground he created the his environment to relate with us, the AP students.He talked about how he was stressing about his exam and how he was trying to memorize the different nerve cables in our head body, well everywhere. I thought that was a really good strategy in order to hook the reader into the book even more because as students we feel as though we are alone when we struggle with school but thanks to Shubin its nice to know that we are not the only ones who suffer. Well besides the connection with the audience this chapter, like every other chapter, was very informative. I never knew that during our embryo stages in life we resemble a shark. Also that we had four arches that somehow over time transformed into our tiny ear bones, jaw bones, etc. I thought that was amazing. Since our embryos look alike and Shubin stated that "we can manipulate the identity of the gill arches almost at will, by changing the activity of the genes inside" this makes me wonder, can we manipulate human arches into frog or shark arches? And if we did manipulate them would the baby still be able to function even with its deformities? This chapter also taught me that the human body has different cranial nerves with different functions. I thought that it was all one nerve. Its cool to know that if your facial nerve malfunctions it becomes evident through your face. Well overall, i disagree with most of the people who posted that this chapter was really confusing because i thought it was just interesting how small cable like structures rule over our life and body. I thought it was the best chapter so far. Well i probably think this because i love anatomy and i think i might major in it so this kind of helped me with info about our body.

chapter 5

I agree with everyone else, this chapter was really confusing in the beginning. I never even thought about what the inside of my head looked like, but the description in the book painted a pretty vivid picture for me. It also made me a bit uneasy thinking of the future fun I can look forward to in medical school cutting someones head open to find a mess of nerves tangled together and forming intricate paths through the body. It theory this is fascinating but the image is a bit graphic for my taste. The chapter had me lost for a bit as it tried to describe all the different nerves and there functions, forcing me to go back and reread sections various times until concepts from biology freshmen year began to come back. Once the vocabulary became for familiar the ideas became easier to comprehend and I was able to breeze through the rest of the chapter. It was pretty amazing how much a human embryo could look like a shark, I mean we look nothing like a human at that stage, it was more like some weird blob. By the end of the chapter I decided eating fish should be cannibalism since we seem to be way to closely related.

Chapter 5

I was very confused when I was reading this chapter. The author used some scientific vocabulary that I had to remember from the freshman year. When he started to talk about the nerve cables, I got really lost and had to take a little break. When I kept reading I learned about the four arches and how it functions in our body. The nerve system was too hard for me to understand and took a little more time to read this chapter. I hope next chapter will be better.

Getting Ahead

The beginning of the chapter, where Shubin becomes so immersed in his work that he forgets he is alone with 25 dead bodies and decides to run out quickly is quite funny. I, like Shubin, would probably react in a similar way. That is scary!

When the description of the nervous system began, all I could think about was the robotic way in which this system functions, acting like an Internet warehouse of Google, where thousands of wires carrying information run around. Its quite interesting how the human body, around for thousands of years, and even more ancient, the animal nervous system, is millions of years before the first fiber-optic wires originated, yet are still able to send information through sensory detectors throughout the body. The elaborate system of trigernimnal branches amazes me, with its functionality astonishing.

The description of what we would see if we were to watch a fetus grow from the first day is quite intriguing. Also, the discovery by Goethe about the fusion of bones to form a carriage for the brain is interesting, pointing out that many times, science is a result of pure luck and coincidence.

The tests on animals during the fetal stages, however brutal they seem, turning on/off genes, is interesting. A frog with 2 jaws. How about a human with 8 hands/legs and the ability to wall-crawl?

Ah, the science of the body is astounding. If only our government would stop printing money for City Group Banks, and instead printed money for school. Then, we could do experiments like this. Or could we?

--- Abdel Albakri

Chapter 5. Getting Ahead

Another Chapter.....
And the vocabulary is still kind of complicated, I was reading the first few pages and started saying a few of the words out loud and my mom gave me a strange look and I said, "What? Its biology its complicated sometimes." It was kind of complicated to keep remembering which arches and nerves he was talking about so I had to keep referring back to pages. However it was interesting to read about how the nerves develop in an embryo and how they develop into these complicated networks. They might seems complicated but they are simple and straight to the point its just the inside that gets more complicated. I didn't know the body was composed of so many arches and it was interesting.
Now its off to chapter 6.

Ch 5: Getting Ahead

This chapter is by far the most difficult to understand. The way Shubin explains the different arches and parts is as confusing as the topic itself! No wonder Dr. Shubin was studying so late for his anatomy final, it's very challenging. I also agree with Shubin that is it strange and inefficient that the trigeminal nerves and facial nerves crisscross with each other, operating on the same body part. Evolution probably made a mistake on humans. I love how he connects the jumble of these nerves with the jumble of the wires, cables, and pipes in his 100-year-old building in 2001. It made me understand the background of this dilemma. It's so amazing that "Every head on every animal from a shark to a human shares those four arches in development"(Shubin 90). This information makes me truly believe that humans are related to fish, even at the embryo stage.

Head Over Heels

Shubin has ventured into uncharted waters for many of us. And by this I mean that he is staying true to his educated side. His use of medical terms and big vocabulary is a bit overwhelming, but I'm sure all of us AP students will cope.
Now, this was a short yet complex chapter. Getting ahead focused on our current anatomy rather than our evolution throughout time. It was extremely interesting to read about our bodily correlations to sharks. While in utero our bodies have distinct similarities to sharks. Our bodies have four arches that later develop into prominent facial features. In understanding a sharks simpler version of these arches, we can begin to grasp our more complex arches.
I've always found anatomy and physiology to be considerably interesting. This gives me a better understanding of my own body and how it came to be. The ability for our bodies to separate two like systems and establish two different functions is something I would like to divulge into later. In addition, I loved learning about Amphioxus, and how it's notochord became part of the disks that separate each vertebrate in our spines. I'll admit that this chapter was boring compared to the more monumental topics like how teeth are responsible for the existence of our major organs. Then again, this book isn't all too fun.

Chapter Five: Getting Ahead

This chapter for me was the most confusing. As I was reading, I kept getting confused with the trigemal and facial nerves plus the four arches. After reading the chapter about 5 times (maybe more), I began to understand what Shubin was explaining. What helped me the most was his analogy to the construction on wires inside the wall. That description helped me imagine what Shubin was looking at those two nights before his Anatomy Final. At the same time, I remembered something that I had once saw at the Body World Exhibit a long time ago. As I recall, I was looking inside a head split in half, and I think I was looking at what Shubin was describing. I remember seeing something wire-like going in twists and loops. It freaked the bejeezus out of me, but it was something I will never forget.

I also loved how Shubin took our connection with species one step further, by connecting us to worms. After reading the worm part, I suddenly realized I was eating Gummy Worms and soon didn't feel like eating them anymore since I felt like I was eating what seems to me something of a cousin to human beings. To me, it's fascinating how we can find similarities with things we never even thought before. Who would of thought that the worms we see everyday relate to us human beings with the development of our heads.

-Ellie Chung

Chapter #5

Shubin's chapters continue to tie the loose ends in his theory. He is starting to ease us into the harder vocabulary and concepts. We are almost halfway through the book and the author still has much to say about his idea. From his describing his expedition, to explaining difficult words, to his interesting pictures, the author is creatively entertaining the readers. This book may be about science but its still interesting.

Chapter 5

Basically, the author of this book talks about head structure and nerves in this chapter.

To me, nerves are one of the most interesting part of biology or anatomy, but nerves were difficult to understand. That is why I did not know much about brain or nerve, even though i am interested about nerves.

This chapter was amazingly interesting. Even though i still did not fully understand about the nerves, I learn a lot of things about the nerves such as four types of arch.

However, at the same time, this chapter was really boring because this chapter was harder to read than other chapter.

At the beginning of the book, The author said "one of joys of science is that, on occasion, we see a pattern that reveals the order in what initially seems chaotic." When i read this qoute, i totally agree with it because it is why i like science and take science class!!!

Chapter 5

Honestly, I had no idea what chapter 5 was about. At least, not until after the first 2 pages of the chapter. What I found interesting was the fact that every figure and organ of our body is made from arches. Whats more fascinating is the fact that every different species' embryos develop in the same way that humans do. This also relates back to the previous chapter. The previous chapter mentioned the Sonice Hedgehog. The arches make the gills in sharks and fish while our arches work to close up the gills that we have as embryos. Does this not show the Sonic Hedgehog in action? The Sonic Hedgehog is in action by formulating how much development or underdevelopment the arches are meant to take; therefore, creating the different figures of species that we see today. If the Sonic Hedgehog's functionality is altered arches, newborns with disfunctional gills are born, just as Shubin mentions. This is just a theory; it may be false.

[ch5] getting ahead

Every time I read new chapter, I learn similarity between human beings and other creatures. Shubin states that "there is a pattern common to every skull on earth, whether it belongs to a shark, a bony fish, a salamander, or a human." Additionally, I was alarmed to know that human and shark have a similar jaws.
Even though I couldn't memorize everything about and skull and brain, I understood the functions of fundamental parts such as think, plates, blocks, and rods. What made me fascinating and still memorable is that "a single branch of facial nerve can carry information about both sensation and action." I once again realize how amazing and complex a human body is. Comparing human to worm can seem inane, but we cannot deny the fact that "the essence of our head goes back to worms."
I enjoy reading this book because it makes me keep wonder about the origin of universe. I constantly argue within myself to state with logic, but it is not easy. How on earth would I know the truth if scientists still dispute about it?

CHAP. 5

And so the book goes on.

For this chapter, there were a ton of different vocabulary that were exciting to pronounce outloud. And, i have to admit, I had no idea what any of them meant. Don't get me wrong, there were some that I actually understood from Biology class during freshman year, but only vaugely.

Despite the vocabulary, I like how Shubin's evolution as a scientist is shown in the chapter as he analyzes structure of humans. I especially liked the diagrams.

chapter five

This chapter had a bunch of new terms that were difficult to understand, but Shubin kind of made these concepts easier to comprehend by putting them in simpler words like "plates, blocks, and rods" (82) and using other objects to exemplify the functions of the body in "Much like a cable that can carry television, Internet, and voice information..." (84). In another example such as the wiring in a building, Shubin does a good job in explaining that if a scientist wants to understand something, it is necessary to also understand its history and how it got that way in the first place. Just as in the previous chapters this made me think about the whole scientific method thing and how scientists cannot expect to find the whole truth if they only work with just a little part of it. So they have to go into different fields, not only science but even history, to actually understand what they are working with.

From the chapters that we read so far, I really saw the connection Shubin makes between humans and fish, or sharks, in the diagram on page 91 with the arches in the early stages of development. I thought this diagram really showed the similarities in developing the same structures as sharks, the jaws for example, because of the same trigeminal nerve that we have in common with them. It goes with the ideas Shubin mentioned in the previous chapters that "we are all just variations of a theme" and "the common blueprint in all creatures." When Shubin connects the human anatomy to that of other animals there's always a new surprise to find out about. But it's all making more sense as the book continues...

alexis jacalne

Chapter 5

This chapter was pretty interesting, because Shubin described the brain in a sort of simple way. Who would have thought that a single nerve that has been disturbed can be shown on the outer appearance. Shubin made the understanding of the brain easier by separating them into smaller parts. I look forward to next chapter.

chapter cinco

This chapter disgusted me...I hate hearing about cutting people or things open and looking at their organs and stuff that's supposed to stay inside our bodies. And I agree with Aarti...this chapter had so many confusing terms my head was about to explode...but the pictures saved me from having a meltdown. I also agree with Julia and Francine... we know our heads and brains do many complex tasks, yet Shubin acts like its no big deal, like its as simple as riding a bike or something. When Shubin started talking about the babies and how we develop in our mommy's tummies, it made me think of an exhibit that i went to earlier that day at the California Science Center. At the science center, there was a place where it showed stages of pregnancy...so I had like...another visual besides the pictures. I really like this book though....its really showing me how our body is not just plain and simple and how we really need to appreciate what we have.

---alyson

Ch. 5 - Getting Ahead

In Chapter 5, Shubin talks about the relation between all creatures through the very basic structures in our head. Although our heads are very complex, he narrows it down to the most basic part in which there is a similarity with other creatures. He starts off with a brief introduction of our head and the structures of our skull and brain. Then he goes off with the complicated cranial nerves including the trigeminal and facial nerve. I thought their description and function were very interesting though it was kind of confusing at first. I knew that the human head was very complex and hard to understand but the feeling of actually learning its complexity was fascinating to me.

Further on into the chapter, Shubin described the four arches that was found to be almost the same in all creatures. Its discovery was only possible through the observation of embryos. After, I realized that embryos played a big role in the other chapters of the book as well as finding our inner fish. What was even more amazing was the relation that was made between us and creatures that did not even possess a head. Worm - like creatures. Even though evolution is fun and interesting, I sometimes question it when it shows there is a relation between humans and... those types of things.

chapter five

chapter five was a chapter that reached straight to the difficults. As soon as we start reading we are introduced to so many new terms which makes the subject confusing. I thought it was amusing how even Shubin crams for finals like we do. However going back to the terminology, words like trigeminal's branches struck as new and difficult to understand. I never knew how muscles and nerves could play such a big role in your head. Its interesting to know that those trigeminal nerves also make physical pain come. When shubin goes to describes the embryos connections it becomes a bit confusing. I never once thought of myself of a fish or a shark but by Shibin I come to realize that we humans arent very special at all. Instead we are a mixture of animals genes in a more developed form.
last but not least thankyou shubin for the diagrams! Those diagrams kept me in place while reading because they never let me forget the key facts of this chapter. Though this chapter was confusing and so hard to understand I think the diagrams had saved me from being a lost little nemo.

Chapter 5: Getting Ahead

I personally, love this chapter! It is so fascinating how the brain and the human mind works! By far, I would say this is the best chapter ever.

The beginning of the chapter is almost like a horror movie. Shubin hooked me to the chapter right from the start. I loved it!!!

On page 82, Shubin takes us through a journey of the head. He says "Having thus opened a human head, we find a clump of what looks like tangled fishing lines". Reading this, I really thought I was looking at a real life brain. It was like a medical brain fairytale, you can picture..lol :)

OKAY, so now FROWN..you are using your depressor anguli oris. How cool is that? I found this part really interesting, the facial nerve and all the odd things that can happen. Haha.

Ooo, and I learned why history is important! Well, history is interesting (its fun) and we need it to understand the whole bit of information. Its like understanding our family background, we need to know the history first and then relate the present to the past. I knew this before but stating the obvious that I never thought about made this chapter cool.

The arch pattern was a new concept and it is pretty amazing! I never knew we relate to a shark this much. He even shows illustrations!

SO, "Take a gulp, listen to music, and thank the structures that form from your second arch. (91). LOL. :)