Chapter 5: Getting Ahead

What startled me in this chapter was that Shubin, not once, talked about his findings or his explorations to finding the fish, instead, he concentrated on explaining something that is very profound and hard to understand: the importance and the secret of the brain. In the very beginning, Shubin exemplifies how, even as a student, he was able to see many patterns in the brain, showing that he knew his stuff. One thing that amazed me in this chapter was how he compared the human embryo arches to arches of a shark embryo! I was really shocked when I read at how similar, yet different both are. Also, I was shocked by how turning off and turning on some genes in any animals would change the appearance of the entire animal! This chapter was extremely thorough in detail, and thought it was a bit confusing, every detail and information did make sense in its own way. Overall, this was an interesting chapter that I was looking forward to since the title left me blank.