Ch. 3: Handy Genes

As I started reading this chapter, the "Handy Genes" started to make itself clearer because at first I thought them as helpful, but as I read on, the genes started to be literally "Handy." The chapter was fascinating and in my opinion because the experiments done in the process of figuring out the deep inner fish in all the species such as skates, mice, flies, and chickens was overall rigorous but very acclaimable. Before, we were introduced to the historical structure of the fish's fin before evolving into an arm, but now, in this chapter, we get deeper understandings of how fins become arms with genetics.
We know that limb finned fishes evolved into fishes with limbs and digits, but how did they genetically? What genes were used to get to this point and how? Shubin seemed so engrossed in the inter-workings of genetics and fossils as well as the incomplete past that his motivation inspired me such as need to know and discover the connections everyone shares with each other and the species around us: From the flies we swat every day to the sharks in the oceans over 1,000 miles away.
DNA was experimented with to find a gene called the hedgehog soon sonic hedgehog in mammals. This gene's discovery was worth the effort and the time for not only was the history of how fins evolved to digits and the structure Owen described, but also showed me that scientists do not only want to know but also to have fun. I want to be someone like that. Someone who loves what they are doing while helping everyone around them, at least indirectly.
The duplication also surprised me as well as the many written in this book. How can simple Vitamin A in ZPA change a structure so dramatically? Is this how primitive animals formed digits and then evolved into humans? Well, all appendages are said to be constructed by the same genes so I guess we are...