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