Chapter 3: Handy Genes

I think that this chapter so far is the most interesting for me personally. When they started talking about how we need to take a page from CSI the TV show it caught hook of me for the rest of the chapter. It is confusing when Shubin was talking about the limbs. I understand that our body parts are different and that our pinkies and our thumbs are quite different from each other, but I didn't really understand where he was going with it. I know he was talking about how we are all connected to each other by the same ancestor of some sort, or we all evolved from one thing to another based on survival of the fittest.
I though that the beginning of the chapter was very interesting. It seems incredible that the laboratory is split into two parts with DNA and embreyos one of the sides. In the study of paleontology I would not suspect that DNA would have a very large impact. This makes the study of genes and DNA more impactful in my life because that is what most interests me in biology. When Shubin talks about the experiment to put chemicals into a fish and actually change its body seems crazy, but not impossible. There have been many experiments with changing other animals forms and endurance. Even with cows there have been experiments where the cows have chemicals in them to increase the amount of milk that they produce.
I have also found that Shubin enjoys the usage of rhetorical questions, ones that he answers right after he explains his question. It is almost as if he is having a conversation with us, rather than informing us of the processes he and his fellow scientists have gone through. He shows us the methods of persuasion to convince the stubborn people that may read this book.