Ch 8

Shubin makes extracting DNA look so easy with his recipe. I might even try it with my own sandwich meats to discover its DNA haha. I never knew smelling was so important to our well-being. It helps us avoid damage from flatulence and determine if food is spoiled. My nose saved me from harm lots of times when I smelled sour milk in my milk carton. We can't take our sense of smell for granted. Moving on, what really surprised me was finding out that fish can smell too, in water of course. No wonder sharks and other fish predators are so good at hunting, their smelling abilities allow them to smell blood from a distance. Also, isn't it weird how 3 percent of mammals' entire genomes are devoted to smelling genes but humans have most of them turned off? However, even if dogs can smell better than humans, at least we can see many different colors, not black and white.