Chapter 5: Getting Ahead

This chapter had to be the one with the most information I was unfamiliar with. In the beginning when Shubin was talking about his late night studying in the lab, it startled me when he mentioned that there were 25 other cadavers in the room he was in. I can't imagine taking anatomy in college and being in a room like Shubin was in, (especially at night).

I would have never guessed that when humans are born, the three plates on the top part of our heads have gapes in between them until they fuse together later on. Thanks to his connection from the jumble of wires in the wall, it was a good visual to understand what trigeminal and facial nerves looked like inside the head. I can only imagine the twisting and turning of all the nerves everywhere, impossible to take in all at once.

In addition, I found it quite interesting that "Every head on every animal from a shark to a human shares those four arches in development" (90). Even though in appearance the arches look similar in the shark and human embryo, its amazing that soon enough, major differences appear later on. The head is filled with a puzzle of nerves, plates, blocks, rods, and muscles I'm eager to learn about later on this year.