Ch. 7

I had always wondered why the human body looked the way it does, and why we are so different from every organism in the world, and Ch. 7 answered these questions for me. One reason being that our cells are composed in different proportions than that of a frog or a horse and define us as humans. It was also very informative for Shubin to put in the section about the different molecules and compounds found in the human skeletal system and their functions. I found it interesting that our cells are actually able to "talk" to each other via molecules and are able to communicate to each other when its time to divide, die, or create other new molecules. I also found it amazing that if you put a whole bunch of a different cells together, they will know how connect to similar cells and begin communicating. And today, the blueprints to why our bodies are the way they are today are came from...the single-celled microbe. It was shockingly enough to know we came from one of the simplest of creatures, but that they actually had the molecules to become multi-cellar bodies, but circumstances prevented them to. I never thought single-celled organisms could become multi-celled, let alone have the potential to become one. Even more shocking, our body's blueprint came to be in order to prevent some microbes from being eaten, in form of becoming bigger, but the lack of oxygen in primitive earth, prevented these cells from becoming our bodies. I knew oxygen was a key element in our survival, but i didn't know the reason our primitive microbe ancestors needed oxygen was because making collagen required a huge amount of it.