Chapter 5

Reading this chapter gave me a lot of insight into how exactly the human brain works, using the cranial nerves and other such complicated things to make our bodies run and perform the ways they do. From the moment he started talking about holding two human pieces of brain in his hands all the way to the gilled arches of insects and worms, I was captivated and I never stopped flipping those pages. The many pieces that make up the human brain and enable us to function both amaze me and mystify me both in very peculiar ways, and even as Shubin tried there was no way he could fully explain just how complicated our brain is; and I never expected him to. That would have required a lot more reading, and I'm vehemently apposed to that. Also, the embryos developmental stages and growth of "arches" better helped to understand just how we changed from that small little baby to what we are now. When Shubin first tried to explain just how we are alike sharks in our early developmental stages, I had to pause and just evaluate how bold that statement was; as I don't know about you, but I don't look anything like a shark or a worm or an insect. But just look at the diagrams, and it all felt clear as we shared a "jaw" and thank god for that; otherwise we never would have had Jaws.

Keith Renner