Chapter 7 was a gold mine of figurative language. Especially with such abstruse information, the book is easier to read and understand because of Shubin's analogies and connections. When he compared the history of the earth to a year, starting on January 1st and ending on December 31st, I quickly understood that for half of earth's history, life consisted of single-celled organisms. Also, I learned that the breadth of time that humans have existed is insignificant to Earth's vast history.
Shubin also calls the force that holds cell together as "glue" which amused me. It also planted a chimerical image of a little boy creating life by "gluing" cells together, as if he were gluing pieces of scrap paper together to create a collage of life.
Then when he described cartilage as a Jello-like molecule that swells up with water and is bound by ropes of collagen. I always knew that collagen made our skin firm and as collagen broke down, we would get wrinkles. However, after reading this chapter, I realized that there are more signifcant roles for collagan than preventing wrinkles. Without collagen, our cartiliges would fail to do its job and we would probably be a bag of bones that are unable to move.
This chapter was probably my favorite chapter because it was easy to understand and Shubin illustrates his concepts in such a relatable way. I really appreciate how he isn't condescendingly pedantic, instead he makes analogies that are easily understood.
Oh yeah and I really like his reference to movies like The Blob and Fargo. Way to go Shubin!
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