Thursday, August 5, 2010

Chapter 7: Of Blobs and Bodies

This chapter mainly went into depth about the origins of the human body, the connections that hold it together, and basically described how we and our little bacteria friends are actually cousins. He explains that our bodies cells communicate with each other and holds themselves together through molecular rivets. This is essential to the structure of our body because without the communication of these cells, we would be dead because our bodies would not know how to build themselves. He uses great examples to show us this kind of interaction (i.e. how cells form a bone). I love when he does that! He then also explains to us that we and sponges share the same scaffolding apparatus that builds bodies (the division of labor among parts, the communication between certain cells, etc.). At the end of the chapter, he explains to us the theory of why bodies came at such a late point in Earth's history even though the creatures were ready for it. He says that maybe it was because of a defensive reaction to being eaten by predators and the fact that the Earth finally had enough oxygen to support bodies. This chapter fascinated me because I thought that our bodies were just......cells and nothing more. HAHAH well I was wrong. Shubin always makes my reading enjoyable and I'm always learning more about biology!

-Bryan Munar

No comments:

Post a Comment