This was a summary of everything. After all this talk about evolution and fossils, I thought it was a pretty good book. By combining my beliefs in God and creation and fossils and evolution, my outlook on the world and its history is truly extraordinary.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Chapter 10 & 11
I thought the ears chapter was pretty cool. Well better than the other chapters. I found it interesting how only recently that mammals came to have external ear flaps. I also found it intriguing how we have liquid inside our ears and by tilting one's head the liquid moves letting the brain know what direction your head is tilt.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Chapter 11: The Meaning of it All
This was the final chapter in this informative, yet entertaining book. I enjoyed how Shubin managed to tie it all together at the end and leave you feeling satisfied with the knowledge he presented, yet also making you want to learn more. The biological "law of everything" is what I found myself focusing on most during this chapter. Everything he mentioned I would tie to this fundamental law. This law basically means that every living thing on the planet had parents. This law even found a way to connect to the biological mechanism of heredity to allow us to apply it even to creatures like bacteria. The extension of this law is that all of us are modified descendants of our parents, or our parental genetic information. The central issue of this law is deciphering the family tree of species, or their pattern of relatedness. This issue was described like a peeling onion with tracing relatedness through subsets: revealing layer after layer of history. It was cool how Shubin compared us and our inner fish to a hot-rod Beetle (throwing in a history lesson with Hitler and Porsche). This comparison allowed me to understand why we are bound to have problems...I could also understand the issues we face by referencing back to this comparison. The issue of hiccups grasped my attention the most though because of its complexity and how the nerve spasm was a product of our fish history, while the hic is an outcome of history shared with animals such as tadpoles. I found it shocking how diseases such as cardioencephalonyopathy can kill infants that have it. This disease is a genetic change that interrupts normal metabolic funcition of mitochondria. Discoveries of our inner flies, worms, yeast and fish help us find causes of diseases we suffer from and allow us to find ways we can develop tools to live longer and healthier. So while our ancestry can handicap us in some ways, knowledge of our ancestry can help us overcome them.
Chapter 10: Ears
Ears are made up of three sections: outer, or external, the middle, and the inner. The external ear is the newest addition, with the pinna (external ear flap) and is only present in mammals. Mammals also have three middle ear bones, however, reptiles and amphibians have only two, while fish have none! This fact surprised me because I didn't know that our ear bones were so special. A scientist by the name of Reichert discovered that parts of the ears of mammals are the same as parts of jaws of reptiles.(This was extremely revolutinary for his time since this was before Darwin's proposal of evolution). Later on, a scientest named Gaupp used Reichert's discovery to say the three middle ear bones reveal a tie between reptiles and mammals; if indeed the case, the fossil record should show bones shifting from jaw to ear during the origin of mammals...which was eventually confirmed! The origin of mammals include new ways of hearing by repurposing exisiting bones found in reptiles! The middle ear contains the records of two important subjects: one is the origin of our stapes and transformation of a jaw support bone to an ear bone, beginning when fish started to walk on land, and two, the bones at the back of the reptile jaw became our malleus and incus. Shubin helped me understand the inner ear and its gel by comparing it to a snow globe. Once I understood this concept, I also understod the inner ear's basic chain of events: gel inside swishes, hair projections on nerves bend, and an impulse is sent to our brains. This process is made more sensitive with tiny rock-like structure on top of the membrane that allows the gel to move more inside our inner ear. Our inner ear correlates with the eye to assess position and acceleration. Shubin said the best way to understand this is by obstructing it...by sharing what happens in the inner ear when a person is drunk. I found it funny when he said we can thank these occurences because of our shared history with sharks and fish, stating, 'the spinning drunk and fish's water-sensing organs have common genes.' He also stated that mammals obtained a better sense of hearing because their inner ear is developed in a different way compared to other animals. Scientists discovered Pax 2, which is a gene active in the ear region that starts a chain reaction of gene activity that leads to the development of the inner ear. Pax 2 reminded me of Pax 6 from the previous chapter and I was glad to know that they seem to have a link other than their similar names. The box jellyfish (which has eyes!!!) shows that although it does not have either of these genes, it has a gene that 'is a mosaic' to the structure of both Pax 2 and Pax 6...in other words, this jellyfish had a primitive version of both of these genes!
Chapter 9: Vision
Shubin began this chapter by comparing the history of the eye to that of a car, where we can trace its history through the different parts present. He specified that the eyes capture light by using sensitive light-gathering cells. These cells allow the retina to absorb light, and, thus, allow us to see. I was intrigued that we had two types of these cells: one that is very sensitive (black and white vision), and one that is less sensitive (color vision). By finding the percentage of each type of light-sensing cell in an animal's eye, we can determine whether they are specialized for daylight or night...and 70 percent of the sensory cells in our body are these light-gathering cells!! That allowed me to see how much we rely on our vision for survival. Since we use these cells everyday, this made me want to know how they work...so I found it extremely intereseting how the molecules that collect light divide into two parts: one derived from Vitamin A and the other from a protein called opsin (we use different opsins to see in black and white or in color). For our vision, we need three light-gathering molecules for color vision, whereas, we only need one of these for black and white vision. These molecules change shape in light, which is why it takes awhile for us to see when we go from some place extremely bright to some place darker. Opsins use the same receptor path as seen in parts of certain molecules in bacteria! So, in a sense, we can see because of these specific molecules in bacteria. Color vision developed in a similar way as which our odor-receptor genes developed...that is, one of the genes in other mammals duplicated and copies specialized overtime for different light sources...so our sight and sense of smell have more similarities than I originally perceived. Scientists believe the switch to color vision correlates to the switch from one forest to another forest with more colorful food. Scientists also found that animal eyes have a change in their tissue formation (vertebrate vs. invertebrate). The eyeless gene, or Pax 6, was found to control the development of eyes. This gene, when mutated, can result in small eyes, or no eyes at all. And when this gene is turned on in different parts of the body, an eye is developed there! As a result, I learned that Pax 6 controls the development in everything that has eyes....and even if eyes are different, the genetic switches that make them are the same.
Chapter 9-11
Chapter 9- “Vision”
This chapter taught me that eyes aren’t the best candidates for fossil preservation due to its softness and vulnerability. I learned that scent and vision have many similarities. One of which is the amount of history one has behind it. It evolves into a better, more efficient structure as each generation passes and is made up of parts and pieces of each model before it: “simply a mosaic.” I was also very intrigued by the path light takes throughout each part of our eyes. I never knew that we need two different kinds of cells to attract different levels of sensitivity in light. Last, Gehring’s experiment showed me that with the eyeless gene, one can manipulate the DNA sequence of a certain organism: adding a new eye or change the location of the eye.
Chapter 10- “Ears”
When I think of an ear, I think of the outer part, the part we can see. I never knew it consisted of three parts, each with different functions. Although, the idea that surprised me the most was that our inner ear was actually comprised of part of our jaw. Our jaw actually shrunk over time to fit the inner parts of our ear. With this, we are able to acquire a more advanced ear with more features. I also found out that acceleration is one of the functions our ear is capable of. When we accelerate, fluid in our air swishes and produces a nerve impulse that is sent to our brain to tell us we are accelerating. Who knew such immense teamwork existed in our bodies?
Chapter 11- “The Meaning of It All"
I believe the most important information in this chapter was the pattern of descent with modification. With this concept, students/educators can clearly understand the way life’s history works and how everything was produced. The diagram of the “bozos” amused me, but at the same time educated me in my knowledge of family history. I also found the idea of suffering for all of our new and improved features very surprising because I never thought of all the defects our body had. When something hurt, I just endured it or took medicine. When Shubin described humanity as “sedentary,” it really encouraged me to be more active so I wouldn’t have to go through all the problems that humans face. Last, when he described all of our diseases and sicknesses, I felt like I had all the knowledge one can possibly attain. Being able to learn all the origins of our diseases gave me a sense of hope that maybe, I can try to avoid it in the future. All in all, I am very grateful to read this novel because I was able to learn more about the human body and that it is important to grow healthy for future generations.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Ch.8-11
Ch. 8 Making Sense
I never thought that extracting DNA was easy. I figured it would take a team of researchers and a well equipped lab, but Shubin proved me wrong when he said that we can extract DNA in our own kitchen, with just easily accessible ingredients such as dish wash soap, water, salt, etc.
Shubin called DNA an "extraordinarily powerful window into life's history" in the first page of the chapter, but on the next page, he called DNA goop. I was shocked and amused at the same time because i figured that this chapter will be informative and boring because of the way he described DNA the first time. I was also shocked to find out that genes involved in the sense of smell was in every cell. I thought they were only in the nasal area, but i found out that the genes in the nasal area are the only ones active. Our genes are amazing. Shubin described that "some people can detect the odor molecules in a green bell pepper at a concentration of less than one part per trillion". He compared that to "picking out one grain of sand from a mile-long beach."
Ch. 9 Vision
I loved how Shubin described humans as "a mosaic of bits and pieces found in virtually everything else on the planet." It concludes his point on evolution that we, organisms, are all parts of each other, even those in the past. Shubin's use of pictures and diagrams helped me understand the importance of each part of the eye. I found out that as eyes evolve, visual acuity increases. I did not know that vertebrates and invertebrates have different types of eyes. invertebrates have tissues that fold a couple times, while vertebrates' tissues do not fold. Its amazing that the eyeless gene by Gehring can create eyes on the antennas, legs, etc, of a fly. However,it started to get me nauseous when Gehring started to switch the eyeless gene on other organisms such as a mouse with a fly gene. This switch created a mouse with fly eyes, which I find a bit disgusting. However disgusting I may find this, I can't think other than that Gehring made a major breakthrough that advanced science.
Ch 10 Ears
Its amazing that two of the ear bones in a mammal corresponds to pieces of the jaw in reptiles. The sturctures of organisms are crazy as research is further developed. For example, finding a similarity between sharks and humans is unbelievable. Its amazing how hair is an essential part of our body when all we see is it standing limp on our head and our arms and legs. What we don't clearly see is that hair in our noses catches dust from entering our body while hair in our ear makes nerve cells send an electrical impulse to the brain just by bending. I never knew that fluid in the inner ear swishes when we accelerate. When ever I am in a rollercoaster, I will try to remember the reason why I have the feeling in my ears.
Ch 11 The Meaning of it All
Although everyone are descendents from their parents and grandparents, they are not exact replicas of their ancestors. By the seventy-fifth generation, the first generation and the seventy-fifth will not look at all related. Mutations happen and different combinations occur. Like this example, humans and this generation's organisms are descendents of the first generation's organisms even though they may not look even close to this generation. This is how Shubin was able to decrease the complications of evolution into a highly understood concept.
Your Inner Fish was a very informative book, that helped me prepare for class. It was a great book and I am very thankful that Mr. Tisor assigned us this amazing book; however, I am glad it ended. I will keep in mind of Shubin's book as I further receive infromation about evolution and about our bodies. I can truthfully agree with Nature as they reviewed that "Shubin's simple, passionate writing may turn more than a few high school students into aspiring biologist."
I never thought that extracting DNA was easy. I figured it would take a team of researchers and a well equipped lab, but Shubin proved me wrong when he said that we can extract DNA in our own kitchen, with just easily accessible ingredients such as dish wash soap, water, salt, etc.
Shubin called DNA an "extraordinarily powerful window into life's history" in the first page of the chapter, but on the next page, he called DNA goop. I was shocked and amused at the same time because i figured that this chapter will be informative and boring because of the way he described DNA the first time. I was also shocked to find out that genes involved in the sense of smell was in every cell. I thought they were only in the nasal area, but i found out that the genes in the nasal area are the only ones active. Our genes are amazing. Shubin described that "some people can detect the odor molecules in a green bell pepper at a concentration of less than one part per trillion". He compared that to "picking out one grain of sand from a mile-long beach."
Ch. 9 Vision
I loved how Shubin described humans as "a mosaic of bits and pieces found in virtually everything else on the planet." It concludes his point on evolution that we, organisms, are all parts of each other, even those in the past. Shubin's use of pictures and diagrams helped me understand the importance of each part of the eye. I found out that as eyes evolve, visual acuity increases. I did not know that vertebrates and invertebrates have different types of eyes. invertebrates have tissues that fold a couple times, while vertebrates' tissues do not fold. Its amazing that the eyeless gene by Gehring can create eyes on the antennas, legs, etc, of a fly. However,it started to get me nauseous when Gehring started to switch the eyeless gene on other organisms such as a mouse with a fly gene. This switch created a mouse with fly eyes, which I find a bit disgusting. However disgusting I may find this, I can't think other than that Gehring made a major breakthrough that advanced science.
Ch 10 Ears
Its amazing that two of the ear bones in a mammal corresponds to pieces of the jaw in reptiles. The sturctures of organisms are crazy as research is further developed. For example, finding a similarity between sharks and humans is unbelievable. Its amazing how hair is an essential part of our body when all we see is it standing limp on our head and our arms and legs. What we don't clearly see is that hair in our noses catches dust from entering our body while hair in our ear makes nerve cells send an electrical impulse to the brain just by bending. I never knew that fluid in the inner ear swishes when we accelerate. When ever I am in a rollercoaster, I will try to remember the reason why I have the feeling in my ears.
Ch 11 The Meaning of it All
Although everyone are descendents from their parents and grandparents, they are not exact replicas of their ancestors. By the seventy-fifth generation, the first generation and the seventy-fifth will not look at all related. Mutations happen and different combinations occur. Like this example, humans and this generation's organisms are descendents of the first generation's organisms even though they may not look even close to this generation. This is how Shubin was able to decrease the complications of evolution into a highly understood concept.
Your Inner Fish was a very informative book, that helped me prepare for class. It was a great book and I am very thankful that Mr. Tisor assigned us this amazing book; however, I am glad it ended. I will keep in mind of Shubin's book as I further receive infromation about evolution and about our bodies. I can truthfully agree with Nature as they reviewed that "Shubin's simple, passionate writing may turn more than a few high school students into aspiring biologist."
Chapters 8-11
Chapter 8: Making Scents
In this chapter I thought it was pretty funny when he said that extracting DNA is so easy that it can be done in the kitchen. It was interesting to learn that using meat tenderizer breaks off some of the proteins that are attatched to the DNA. It amazed me of how we can decipher the history of our senses just from DNA. I never knew we could distinguish between 10,000 scents and how our brain can process them; I honestly didn't even know that there were that many scents, its crazy! The diagram of the nasal openings, made the reading more easy to understand and to see the different kinds of nasal openings for different animals.
Chapter 9: Vision
I think it was really cool how Shubin used the analogy of cars to the history of our eyes. By reading, I learned that our eyes have many tissues, and that our eyes are our own little cameras. He shows us that vision is very important to us and that in order to understand our eyes, we must understand the structures of our eyes. It was pretty amazing learning about aniridia, and about how others lacked big portions of their faces and their eyes. This chapter taught me alot about how important our vision is and the different structures and layers that our in our eyes.
Chapter 10: Ears
This chapter got me thinking about the inner ear, that controls the nerve impulses to the brain. I honestly thought that we had fluid in our ears because of when we shower or when we go swimming, but boy was I completely off. I was really surprised to find out that there is fluid in our ear is what signals our brain that our head is tilted. Now everytime I tilt my head I think about the fluid in my ears. ! I also never knew that alcohol affected our ears, i thought alcohol played a big factor to our livers, but Shubin says that the fluid in our ears begin to swirl and that makes our brain think that we are moving; and therefore, it causes us to be dizzy. This chapter out of the other chapters really interested me the most.!
Chapter 11 : The meaning of it all
In the last chapter, Shubin pretty much sums up the whole book. This chapter connects all the chapters together and basically completes the questions and thoughts I had about our body. It was interesting on how Shubin said that "every living thing on the planet had parents". I really enjoyed about reading the family trees and the descendants of our mothers and our fathers. This chapter had its funny parts, when he showed the family tree of "bozo" and how bozo descended from someone with a big nose and floppy feet. I was really amazed to learn that the top death of humans is not by accidents but due to our genetic basis. I always knew that humans were connected to animals, and that evolution has happened millions of years ago, but by reading Shubin's book, everything became real, and more clear to me. This book as a whole was really interesting and it taught me alot about our body! :)
In this chapter I thought it was pretty funny when he said that extracting DNA is so easy that it can be done in the kitchen. It was interesting to learn that using meat tenderizer breaks off some of the proteins that are attatched to the DNA. It amazed me of how we can decipher the history of our senses just from DNA. I never knew we could distinguish between 10,000 scents and how our brain can process them; I honestly didn't even know that there were that many scents, its crazy! The diagram of the nasal openings, made the reading more easy to understand and to see the different kinds of nasal openings for different animals.
Chapter 9: Vision
I think it was really cool how Shubin used the analogy of cars to the history of our eyes. By reading, I learned that our eyes have many tissues, and that our eyes are our own little cameras. He shows us that vision is very important to us and that in order to understand our eyes, we must understand the structures of our eyes. It was pretty amazing learning about aniridia, and about how others lacked big portions of their faces and their eyes. This chapter taught me alot about how important our vision is and the different structures and layers that our in our eyes.
Chapter 10: Ears
This chapter got me thinking about the inner ear, that controls the nerve impulses to the brain. I honestly thought that we had fluid in our ears because of when we shower or when we go swimming, but boy was I completely off. I was really surprised to find out that there is fluid in our ear is what signals our brain that our head is tilted. Now everytime I tilt my head I think about the fluid in my ears. ! I also never knew that alcohol affected our ears, i thought alcohol played a big factor to our livers, but Shubin says that the fluid in our ears begin to swirl and that makes our brain think that we are moving; and therefore, it causes us to be dizzy. This chapter out of the other chapters really interested me the most.!
Chapter 11 : The meaning of it all
In the last chapter, Shubin pretty much sums up the whole book. This chapter connects all the chapters together and basically completes the questions and thoughts I had about our body. It was interesting on how Shubin said that "every living thing on the planet had parents". I really enjoyed about reading the family trees and the descendants of our mothers and our fathers. This chapter had its funny parts, when he showed the family tree of "bozo" and how bozo descended from someone with a big nose and floppy feet. I was really amazed to learn that the top death of humans is not by accidents but due to our genetic basis. I always knew that humans were connected to animals, and that evolution has happened millions of years ago, but by reading Shubin's book, everything became real, and more clear to me. This book as a whole was really interesting and it taught me alot about our body! :)
Chapter Seven: Adventures in Bodybuilding
That title could have been funny if I was still a freshman, but alas its not the case. In this chapter, Shubin explained to us how our bodies formed from tiny microscopic cells, and how important those tiny cells really are. Another thing I didn't know was that cells are connected by molecules, which allow the cells to communicate with each other and make sure each other does its job for the body. He also showed how important oxygen is to the body, and the irony of the fact that our bodies form when microbes learn to consume each other. Without the skeleton, our body would be nothing but a pile of organs sitting atop each other, and the skeleton provides the blueprint to the human body. This chapter was very interesting at times, yet at other parts where he describes the hydroxyapatite, collagen, and proteoglycan levels I tended to drift off a little bit, but he still always brings me back.
Chapter 8-11
Chapter 8
Chapter eight’s title making scents had got me interested. Ay first I read the title as making sense but then after reading that chapter I realized that making sense didn’t actually make sense for that title. So then I looked back and there I saw the title making scents. I got amused in this chapter because it had helped me learn how the nose actually worked. When I read the part with how the tiktaalik’s have two nostrils I was fascinated because it never occurred to me that a awkward looking animal can have two nostrils as a human. When the chapter was about to end I read the part where Shubin said that humans rely more on sight then the sense of smell. Which was true but then I peeked at the next chapter I saw it was about sight so then I thought that Shubin is really good at ending the chapter by introducing the next chapter.
Chapter 9Chapter nine vision had also interested me because now it was about sight. From the diagram with an impel, nautilus, scallop, and human I can see that the human eye can see better. Eyes are like a camera without it we wouldn’t be able to visualize and see anything. I knew that genes make up eyes whether if they are big or small. It depends all on the genes. This chapter was not that long so I didn’t learn much from it. Most of the facts I already knew about. But im glad that it helped me learn some new thing then none at all. I cant wait until I read the next chapter. The only thing that can be left would be to hear.
Chapter 10Chapter 10’s title ear was obvious because of the two past chapters making scents and sight. Obviously ears are there for you to hear but the real thing is how do they actually work? I really got amused on how the ear has three parts to it. The inner, outer, and the middle ear which would help process that to the brain. The inner ear really helps a lot well basically it does most of the work from the three parts of the ear. It is weird how each animal’s ear part’s are different. They either have something extra added to it or it either has something taken away from it. I wanted to learn more about how fishes hear and how they use there ear. I think Shubin should have added a little more about how the ear would be used for fish for clearer understanding. This chapter didn’t actually interest me as much but then it did help me learn a lot of information. As a result the two previous chapter’s had got me interested more.
Chapter 11Chapter eleven the making of it all was the best from through out the book because it had cleared up a lot of question that I had. Although I still had some questions that I still needed help answering, well I guess I’ll ask Mr.Tisor or I probably look it up online. The diagram of the bozo family tree had taken out a chuckle in me (which was the only laugh I got out of me from this book) which was also true that each generation had some new problems but when the last generation came it got all the problems. I really liked this chapter because it had some new things that I never learned about and it had some things that I knew about but didn’t but so much pressure into for learning. As a result this book was very educational and the fist book that I read which didn’t make me fall asleep. I like how Neil Shubin wrote his book with stories and fun and interesting facts!
CHAPTERS 8-11
Chapter 8:
After reading chapter 8, I started to appreciate my olfactory senses more and stop taking them for granted. Shubin explained the process of smell by discussing that we perceive smell by inhaling odor molecules that then go to an area behind our nose where they are trapped by the mucous lining of our nasal passages. Deep within our noses is a lining of a patch of tissue that contains millions of nerves cells. The odor molecules then bind to this patch of tissue which then sends a signal to our brain which perceives these signals as smell. I was shocked to learn that there are so many mutations within our sense of smell that it knocked out many odor genes where we have multiple function less odor cells. Shubin really stunned me where he stated that we as humans traded in our sense of smell for our sense of sight. To think that we rely more on our eye sight that it started to 'deemphasized' our sense of smell that it created functionless odor cells.
Chapter 9:
Shubin used this chapter to reemphasize again the unifying theme that humans are a history of all types of animals through his explanations of vision. Shubin discussed that the shift from black and white vision to color ed vision can be traced back to the 'changes in the flora of the earth millions of years ago.' Shubin explained that colored vision can estimated to have been introduced about 55 million years ago, where before the forests had the same general color. But as time went on, the color started to diversify where more colors were introduced that forced mammals to have colored vision in order to survive. This chapter was able to show that vision is not only a necessity in every animals life, but that their natural surroundings was able to change and alter vision, and added color in order for animals to prolong their life.
Chapter 10:
The beginning of chapter 10 started off with the introduction of the three different parts of the ears: the outer, middle, and inner ear. Shubin went on to explain how the function of the ear goes about the enables each animal to hear. He was able to unify the similarities that each animals has to each other by discussing that the mammalian ear came about from the upper part of a fish jaw. The fish jaw started to shrink due to the transition from water residing animals to land walking animals. It was a very interesting to learn that parts of our ears hold the past of our transition from water to land. This fact really allowed me to see how truly connected we humans are to fish.
Chapter 11:
And finally to the last chapter. This final chapter was really the wrap to the overall theme of the connection between all different kinds of animals. Shubin begun the chapter by explaining the mechanics of genetics and also showing how specific traits are passed down from one generation to the next and how connected they all are. Shubin discussed different traits that humans acquire through their past history by explaining the difficulties humans are forced to undergo because of their past. Humans for example weren't made to be inactive and have a hard time today due to the lack of activity. In previous times humans were used going through long periods of times without food, and end up storing the fat for later. But now with different times, and fast food everywhere, humans now face different diseases such as obesity and heart attacks.
After reading chapter 8, I started to appreciate my olfactory senses more and stop taking them for granted. Shubin explained the process of smell by discussing that we perceive smell by inhaling odor molecules that then go to an area behind our nose where they are trapped by the mucous lining of our nasal passages. Deep within our noses is a lining of a patch of tissue that contains millions of nerves cells. The odor molecules then bind to this patch of tissue which then sends a signal to our brain which perceives these signals as smell. I was shocked to learn that there are so many mutations within our sense of smell that it knocked out many odor genes where we have multiple function less odor cells. Shubin really stunned me where he stated that we as humans traded in our sense of smell for our sense of sight. To think that we rely more on our eye sight that it started to 'deemphasized' our sense of smell that it created functionless odor cells.
Chapter 9:
Shubin used this chapter to reemphasize again the unifying theme that humans are a history of all types of animals through his explanations of vision. Shubin discussed that the shift from black and white vision to color ed vision can be traced back to the 'changes in the flora of the earth millions of years ago.' Shubin explained that colored vision can estimated to have been introduced about 55 million years ago, where before the forests had the same general color. But as time went on, the color started to diversify where more colors were introduced that forced mammals to have colored vision in order to survive. This chapter was able to show that vision is not only a necessity in every animals life, but that their natural surroundings was able to change and alter vision, and added color in order for animals to prolong their life.
Chapter 10:
The beginning of chapter 10 started off with the introduction of the three different parts of the ears: the outer, middle, and inner ear. Shubin went on to explain how the function of the ear goes about the enables each animal to hear. He was able to unify the similarities that each animals has to each other by discussing that the mammalian ear came about from the upper part of a fish jaw. The fish jaw started to shrink due to the transition from water residing animals to land walking animals. It was a very interesting to learn that parts of our ears hold the past of our transition from water to land. This fact really allowed me to see how truly connected we humans are to fish.
Chapter 11:
And finally to the last chapter. This final chapter was really the wrap to the overall theme of the connection between all different kinds of animals. Shubin begun the chapter by explaining the mechanics of genetics and also showing how specific traits are passed down from one generation to the next and how connected they all are. Shubin discussed different traits that humans acquire through their past history by explaining the difficulties humans are forced to undergo because of their past. Humans for example weren't made to be inactive and have a hard time today due to the lack of activity. In previous times humans were used going through long periods of times without food, and end up storing the fat for later. But now with different times, and fast food everywhere, humans now face different diseases such as obesity and heart attacks.
My last blog: Chapter 7-11
Chapter 7: The title of this chapter caught my attention and I became very eager to learn more about what Shubin had to say about our body. Shubin compares our body with a house that is coming together spontaneously from informatino from bricksa where as our bodies come together with cells. I really liked this comparison becaue it allows the readers to get a clear view of how our body is made. Shubin later in the chpater goes more in depth with how our cells and the glue that keeps them attached interact with each other and "talk" to each other, and the molecules make up our cells. Shubin explains that Precambrian literally means "before life" showing us that they too have a biological organziation as explained in chapter 6. What really cuaght my attention was when Shubin explained about the collagen and streptococcus bacteria which is common in our mouths. Shubin even goes in depth to explain that our bodies need energy to grow and collegan needs oxygen and because the oxygen level was very low for billions of years, microbes learned to eat each other.
Chapter 8: The title of this chapter was very interesting to me and extremely unique. I enjoyed reading this chapter becuase i was able to get an insight about the functions of the nose. Well, is a nose jsut an organ or something more. Without breath its claustrophobic but, to find out how the organ works was very educational. I have more respect for my body now. My memories take me back when I had experienced the Body Works exhibit and learnt about our nose. Reading this chapter has helped me connect the dots. I found it very interesting that "eacg smell is composed of many different molecules attaching to differnt receptors" and our brain perceives them as one smell. Of course, Shubin will connect our nose to the nose of a fish, and explain how smelll gets connected with tissues to later connect with neurons. The history of dormant genes in a dolphin, transition from no longer necessary to perform the function of being able to smell and are replaced by a blowhole is extremely suprising.
Chapter 9: The chapter was very self explanatory which the information presented. Shubin explains how light travels through cornear that covers our lens. Much of the process of the images happens inside the brain, the eye merely catches light. The amount of light that can enter is controlled by the iris then allowing the light to pass through tiny muscles that contract and change the lens's shape to focus. Monkey's have a very detailed kind of color vision that allows them to view different kinds of lights, however, other mammals have only a specific kind of light that their eyes are tuned to see in. I was in awe to learn that Polychaets have two kinds of sensing organs. The amazing recipe of construction of the eye helps us understand commonalities and differences in comparing species as well as gentic facts.
Chapter 10: To me learning aobut ears was not as interesting as learning about eyes, however, Shubin managed to keep me engaged throughout the chapter. I was intrigued by learning aobut mammals and their three ear bones, when Shubin explained that having this feature they are able to hear at a higher-frequency sounds where as other animals that only have one ear bone, can only hear so much. Shubin also explained that the staples is a second arch bone along with hyomandibula. There are tiny hairlike projections and specialized nerve cells inside our ear that help us perceive sound. The image of a snow globe was extermely helpful in being able to visualize the accelaration that occurs in our ears and also helps us balance. This concept was interesting to me because the whole system is connected to our eye muscles. Of course, Shubin will connect our ear to the ear of a fish, in the sense that Pax 2 is active in the head and the neuromasts.
Chapter 11: I could connect to Shubin and the fact that everything had parents. Meaning that everything derieved from somthing else and I enjoyed reading the example, that you are standing in a room filled with unknown people, how would you determine their relation. Also if you were to walk through a zoo you would find that you are in some way connected or resemble each animal there. It was extermely eye opening to learn that talking is not cheap. In the sense that human larynx is made up of mostly gill arch cartilages adn therefore our throats are very complex features in our body. I was shocked to learn that a men are more likely to get a hernia rather than women because in a female's body wallg through pregnancy and childbirth. Also the fact that diseases are bacteria was really something different to me, but it made sense through the exsistence of mitrochondria in our cells. This book has truely been very educational and interesting to learn from. At first, I was uncertain how Shubin will be able to connect our human body to a fish, but as I read the book I was able to learn.
Chapter 8: The title of this chapter was very interesting to me and extremely unique. I enjoyed reading this chapter becuase i was able to get an insight about the functions of the nose. Well, is a nose jsut an organ or something more. Without breath its claustrophobic but, to find out how the organ works was very educational. I have more respect for my body now. My memories take me back when I had experienced the Body Works exhibit and learnt about our nose. Reading this chapter has helped me connect the dots. I found it very interesting that "eacg smell is composed of many different molecules attaching to differnt receptors" and our brain perceives them as one smell. Of course, Shubin will connect our nose to the nose of a fish, and explain how smelll gets connected with tissues to later connect with neurons. The history of dormant genes in a dolphin, transition from no longer necessary to perform the function of being able to smell and are replaced by a blowhole is extremely suprising.
Chapter 9: The chapter was very self explanatory which the information presented. Shubin explains how light travels through cornear that covers our lens. Much of the process of the images happens inside the brain, the eye merely catches light. The amount of light that can enter is controlled by the iris then allowing the light to pass through tiny muscles that contract and change the lens's shape to focus. Monkey's have a very detailed kind of color vision that allows them to view different kinds of lights, however, other mammals have only a specific kind of light that their eyes are tuned to see in. I was in awe to learn that Polychaets have two kinds of sensing organs. The amazing recipe of construction of the eye helps us understand commonalities and differences in comparing species as well as gentic facts.
Chapter 10: To me learning aobut ears was not as interesting as learning about eyes, however, Shubin managed to keep me engaged throughout the chapter. I was intrigued by learning aobut mammals and their three ear bones, when Shubin explained that having this feature they are able to hear at a higher-frequency sounds where as other animals that only have one ear bone, can only hear so much. Shubin also explained that the staples is a second arch bone along with hyomandibula. There are tiny hairlike projections and specialized nerve cells inside our ear that help us perceive sound. The image of a snow globe was extermely helpful in being able to visualize the accelaration that occurs in our ears and also helps us balance. This concept was interesting to me because the whole system is connected to our eye muscles. Of course, Shubin will connect our ear to the ear of a fish, in the sense that Pax 2 is active in the head and the neuromasts.
Chapter 11: I could connect to Shubin and the fact that everything had parents. Meaning that everything derieved from somthing else and I enjoyed reading the example, that you are standing in a room filled with unknown people, how would you determine their relation. Also if you were to walk through a zoo you would find that you are in some way connected or resemble each animal there. It was extermely eye opening to learn that talking is not cheap. In the sense that human larynx is made up of mostly gill arch cartilages adn therefore our throats are very complex features in our body. I was shocked to learn that a men are more likely to get a hernia rather than women because in a female's body wallg through pregnancy and childbirth. Also the fact that diseases are bacteria was really something different to me, but it made sense through the exsistence of mitrochondria in our cells. This book has truely been very educational and interesting to learn from. At first, I was uncertain how Shubin will be able to connect our human body to a fish, but as I read the book I was able to learn.
chapter 8,9,10,and 11
Chapter 8
In this chapter, Shubin mostly talks about scents and how it can affect us. I never knew that odors can impulse our brains to change how we perceive the world and how it change help us survive! It is amazing how we can distinguish between 10,000 scents and that our brain can distribute each smell to a different feeling or memory. As always, the diagram helps me understand what the author is talking about more easily. I also learned that our fish ancestors also had eternal and internal nostrils. Its amazing how our noses are witnesses to our past.
Chapter 9
Chapter 9 was all about vision and how the structure of our eyes work. I never knew that the processing of images we see were actually happening in our brains; all the eyes do are just capturing light. Every creature with a skull have common eyes, from fish to mammal. The connections he made through different species eyes was incredible.
Chapter 10
This chapter explains to the readers about the structure of our ears. I was able to learn the three different parts, the external, middle, and internal. Its amazing how the ear receives sound waves and what we hear are words. It was amusing when Shubin described to imagine stuff flying around in your head at a concert. I never knew about the three ear bone and how it can relate us, human, to reptiles and amphibians. The diagrams, again, helped me clearly see what Shubin was talking about. It was also interesting how our ears are connected to our balance and so it affects our sound position or acceleration. When we bend our head, the gel inside swishes!This all reflects to ho we connect to primitive creatures like the stinging box jellyfish.
Chapter 11
Ah, finally, the last chapter. It kind of felt like a summary of everything that Shubin talked about throughout the book. However, i still learned new information. I learned that were all modified versions of our past parents.What we previous learned was all touched upon again and helped us understand a bigger idea of evolution. Lastly, he talked about the history of what makes us sick. And the "thrifty genotype" hypothesis came out. It was amazing to read this book and learn what evolution is and how we can see it more clearly through better explanations. Your inner fish really boosted my knowledge about our past and how our body works.
Chapters 8-11
In chapter 8, Shubin talks about human and animal's scent and how it is like a baffle. For example, every chemical we scent has an exclusive shape and synthetic attributes. In our smelling organ, we have this enzyme in the cells of our nose that matches the chemical completely. However, what I found interesting as I was reading through this chapter was the behavior of the animals. Fish can only sense the proteins in the water, mammals can sense the proteins in air, while amphibians can sense the proteins underwater or in air. This was quite interesting to me because I never knew that in the inner part of our nose can recognize approximately 10,000 extraordinary fragrance. Overall, this chapter was quite inspirational.
In chapter 9, Shubin talks about the vision and how we can see. The brain interprets and annotates the pattern of nerve authorizations into what we think of as a representation. One part that caught my attention were the fruit flies and how they were born with eyes on their legs which allows them to act in response to light and that they're not linked to the nervous system. As I read about fruit flies and about their special effects, it was pretty amazing.
In chapter 10, Shubin talks about ears. I really like the fact how Shubin provides examples of hearing regarding of talking about sharks. For example, when you spot a shark eating another type of fish smaller than them, the shark probably heard and sensed the water flowing as the little fish swam by. Therefore, a shark can sense the fish like as if an individual can sense the changes and alterations around the surroundings.
In chapter 11, like what the title says, this chapter basically covers up all of the significance and the importance from the rest of the book. I learned more about the particular aspects of evolution. Because I already knew some basic evolution belief or theory, learning about how us, as an individual human being and how we are specifically related to a certain animal quite amazes me and helped me get a better understanding of the evolution theory. Indeed, I really enjoyed reading this scientific, adventurous book which was very inspirational and educational, yet entertaining.
In chapter 9, Shubin talks about the vision and how we can see. The brain interprets and annotates the pattern of nerve authorizations into what we think of as a representation. One part that caught my attention were the fruit flies and how they were born with eyes on their legs which allows them to act in response to light and that they're not linked to the nervous system. As I read about fruit flies and about their special effects, it was pretty amazing.
In chapter 10, Shubin talks about ears. I really like the fact how Shubin provides examples of hearing regarding of talking about sharks. For example, when you spot a shark eating another type of fish smaller than them, the shark probably heard and sensed the water flowing as the little fish swam by. Therefore, a shark can sense the fish like as if an individual can sense the changes and alterations around the surroundings.
In chapter 11, like what the title says, this chapter basically covers up all of the significance and the importance from the rest of the book. I learned more about the particular aspects of evolution. Because I already knew some basic evolution belief or theory, learning about how us, as an individual human being and how we are specifically related to a certain animal quite amazes me and helped me get a better understanding of the evolution theory. Indeed, I really enjoyed reading this scientific, adventurous book which was very inspirational and educational, yet entertaining.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11
Chapter 8:
In this chapter, Shubin explained how by extracting DNA from any tissue of a living thing, many details about that particular specie's history is revealed, including the sense of smell. It fascinated me how in the beginning of the chapter, he explained how anyone can extract DNA in his or her's own kitchen with little effort and time, and be amazed. For a minute, I thought about going in my kitchen and actually trying out that, but decided to get a group of friends and try it - to see if it really does work. Shubin, also compares the analogy of smell to a chord, and how, like a chord, receptors and molecules work together to create an odor. Lastly, what fascinated me in this chapter was how many genes in human bodies are present, but remain silent and can be no longer used by a body.
Chapter 9:
Shubin talked about how essential vision is for every living organism. It was easy for me to understand this chapter because he broke it down into three sections: light-gathering molecules, tissues, and genes. One detail that struck me was how he compared the molecule in vertebrate eyes, opsin, to bacteria and ultimately stated that "modified bits of ancient bacteria lie inside our retina, helping us see" (153). Shubin also explained how there are invertebrates that are a living bridge between invertebrate eyes and vertebrate eyes because they consist of both kind of eyes - such as the Polychaetes that have our kind of eyes in a primitive form.
Chapter 10:
Chapter ten started off with talking about the external ear, then talking about he middle ear, and finally ending with the inner ear. The external ear, Shubin explained, is a recently new addition and is only found in mammals. Though some amphibians and reptiles have ears that can be seen, they lack pinna (the projecting of an ear lying on the outside). Shubin then talked about the middle ear and the three bones: malleus, incus, and stapes. While explaining the three bones, Shubin remarks that the jaw of a reptile is transformed to two ear bones (malleus and incus). This happened when the jaws of reptiles slowly started becoming smaller and eventually mammals evolved and the gill arches of the reptiles (in their jaws) became the gill arches of mammals (in their ears). Lastly, Shubin talked about the inner ear, which has many functions, including allowing us to hear, telling us which way our head is tilted, and recording how quickly our head is moving or tilting. The inner ear is fascinating as it reveals so much about the similarity between human ears and eyes.
Chapter ten started off with talking about the external ear, then talking about the middle ear, and finally ending with the inner ear. The external ear, Shubin explained, is a recently new addition and is only found in mammals. Though some amphibians and reptiles have ears that can be seen, they have no pinna (the projecting part of an ear lying outside). Shubin then talks about the middle ear and the three bones: malleus, incus, and stapes. While explaining the three bones, Shubin remarks that the jaw of a reptile transformed to two ear bones (malleus and incus). This happened when the jaws of reptiles slowly started becoming smaller and eventually mammals evolved and the gill arches of the reptiles (in their jaws) became the gill arches of mammals ( in their ears). Lastly, Shubin talked about the inner ear, which has many functions, including allowing us to hear, telling us which was our head is tilted, and lastly in recording how quickly our head is moving or tilting. The inner ear is fascinating as it reveals so much about how human ears and eyes are extremely similar, connected, and work together.
Chapter 11:
Lastly, in chapter eleven, Shubin summed up his points and revealed why he believes that there is an "inner fish" lying within all of us. It was interesting to see how Shubin actually connected all of his chapters in this chapter and showed that mammals are all descendants with modifications. The bozo family tree, personally, helped me see how each descendant is modified from the past and is somehow better. Also, the humans-polar bears- turtles- fish connection revealed that they are a deciphering family tree and have a pattern of relativity. Shubin compares groupings based on "hundreds of genetic, embryological, and anatomical features" (183) to peeling an onion, exposing layer after layer of history - starting with the basic features of fishes and ending with microbial bacteria. Shubin also stated that humans constantly get sick (heart diseases, strokes, obesity, etc.) because our ancestors weren't built to be able to sit for countless hours on a couch, run and walk for tremendous periods of time, or talk, think, and grasp. For this reason, humans and other organisms are to be flawed one way or another.
All in all, this book proved to be quite interesting and delighting in many chapters, but also dull and repetitive in some. It definitely renewed my interest and questioned my beliefs on evolution.
Sorry this seems as it is late, but I was trying to post this from 11:30 but it wouldn't show my chapter 9 and 10 postings, only chapters 8 and 11, as you can see below.
CH. 8, 9, 10, & 11
Finishing the rest of the book definitely involved cramming much information into my head. However, when I began digesting all of the facts given, I began to realize that everything covered in Your Inner Fish, from the beginning to the end, the main idea has been that the human structure, almost every single part of it, could be traced to many different animals and creatures as well. Those connections are what allow us to discover what the earliest beings that lived on this planet may have been like, as well as any other life forms that have existed. Our ability to smell, see, and hear, is pretty much the same for all other animals, except for slightly different quirks in how we obtain those senses specifically. It was fascinating to read about all of the slightest little details that gift us with the ability to absorb our surroundings in many ways, and that without a tiniest little part, we may not be able to function a specific sense correctly.
The final chapter truly hit the spot in summing up the whole book. I really liked how he described our whole entire body as a zoo with all the different functions being a part of it. Up to the very end, Shubin continuously and consistently related us as people to a fish, in that if we were to trace our ancestors back far enough, we are bound to find similarities, its just that along the lineage line, the genetic makeup would change here and there until eventually, we may seem completely different to others. It was quite an experience reading through this novel throughout the summer. I have a new outlook on life now, especially when seeing other creatures, instead just seeing them as something existing on the same Earth as me, they have instead become something that is like me physically, just different looking.
The final chapter truly hit the spot in summing up the whole book. I really liked how he described our whole entire body as a zoo with all the different functions being a part of it. Up to the very end, Shubin continuously and consistently related us as people to a fish, in that if we were to trace our ancestors back far enough, we are bound to find similarities, its just that along the lineage line, the genetic makeup would change here and there until eventually, we may seem completely different to others. It was quite an experience reading through this novel throughout the summer. I have a new outlook on life now, especially when seeing other creatures, instead just seeing them as something existing on the same Earth as me, they have instead become something that is like me physically, just different looking.
Chapters 8-11
Chapter 8
Shubin discusses our noses' role and the way that smell is transferred to the brain and deciphered as different odors. I liked that Shubin compared smell to a chord, showing that odor is the product of signals from lots of receptors keyed to different odor molecules. I found it interesting when he mentioned that our sense of smell shows our history as amphibians, mammals, and fish. I didn't realize that our noses are witnesses to our past and the animals we originate from.
Chapter 9
When Shubin started talking about the structure of our eyes in the beginning of the chapter, I wondered how eyes could be preserved as fossils. However, he explains that we must understand the relationship between different structures of eyes in order to understand the history of our eyes. I found it very interesting that Shubin and other scientists studied the molecules that gathered light, different tissues that are used to see, and the genes that comprise of the eye.
Chapter 10
Shubin starts off this chapter breaking the ear down into three parts; external, middle, and internal. He mentions the three bones that consist of the middle ear, and explained how they showed how mammals and reptiiles are related. I liked the diagrams that Shubin provided to show the transformation from fish to amphibian, amphibian to reptile, and finally, reptile to mammals. I thought it was interesting when Shubin mentioned the fluid-filled sacs located in our inner ears because I didn't realize that they could tell the brain what was happening to our bodies. It was good to see that this structure could be seen on the skin of underdeveloped fish. This reflection made a connection between humans and primitive life forms.
Chapter 11
Shubin mentions the law describing how every organism has parents. He also states that we are all modified versions and that this descent of modification can show how we connect to the rest of life. I was able to understand why Shubin wanted to decipher these lineages, and why he felt that a pattern could be discovered. I felt that this chapter was a very effective way for Shubin to sum up all that he discussed and shared in the previous chapters, and I liked to see how everything fit together in the end. Shubin also goes on to talk about different diseases that humans suffer and endure, and how they are somewhat related to our past. Overall, Shubin shares many discoveries with his readers, showing that our history can be studied in order to help us live healthier and longer lives in the future. I feel lucky to have learned so much throught this amazing journey that I have been a part of.
Shubin discusses our noses' role and the way that smell is transferred to the brain and deciphered as different odors. I liked that Shubin compared smell to a chord, showing that odor is the product of signals from lots of receptors keyed to different odor molecules. I found it interesting when he mentioned that our sense of smell shows our history as amphibians, mammals, and fish. I didn't realize that our noses are witnesses to our past and the animals we originate from.
Chapter 9
When Shubin started talking about the structure of our eyes in the beginning of the chapter, I wondered how eyes could be preserved as fossils. However, he explains that we must understand the relationship between different structures of eyes in order to understand the history of our eyes. I found it very interesting that Shubin and other scientists studied the molecules that gathered light, different tissues that are used to see, and the genes that comprise of the eye.
Chapter 10
Shubin starts off this chapter breaking the ear down into three parts; external, middle, and internal. He mentions the three bones that consist of the middle ear, and explained how they showed how mammals and reptiiles are related. I liked the diagrams that Shubin provided to show the transformation from fish to amphibian, amphibian to reptile, and finally, reptile to mammals. I thought it was interesting when Shubin mentioned the fluid-filled sacs located in our inner ears because I didn't realize that they could tell the brain what was happening to our bodies. It was good to see that this structure could be seen on the skin of underdeveloped fish. This reflection made a connection between humans and primitive life forms.
Chapter 11
Shubin mentions the law describing how every organism has parents. He also states that we are all modified versions and that this descent of modification can show how we connect to the rest of life. I was able to understand why Shubin wanted to decipher these lineages, and why he felt that a pattern could be discovered. I felt that this chapter was a very effective way for Shubin to sum up all that he discussed and shared in the previous chapters, and I liked to see how everything fit together in the end. Shubin also goes on to talk about different diseases that humans suffer and endure, and how they are somewhat related to our past. Overall, Shubin shares many discoveries with his readers, showing that our history can be studied in order to help us live healthier and longer lives in the future. I feel lucky to have learned so much throught this amazing journey that I have been a part of.
chapter 8
The title gave away that the chapter would be something about smell. Before reading, I took a moment to think...what do I enjoy smelling? What are scents used for? Do smells trigger certain things in my primal nature? The sense of smell is so much more than that though. It's one of our five major survival tools to survive. Smell helps us "prey" upon our diet, live our life, and surfaces memories associated with that smell. The thing that really tripped me out was that fishes can smell INSIDE THE OCEAN. I thought since there was water...how can scents be down there? But fishes have a small cavity inside their head to enable them to do that. Evolution...what can you say. It's an amazing thing.
ch 9
I've always wondered how did eyes evolve...because eyes are sort of liquid like and they don't survive fossils. They leave just a whole in the skull or whatever the animal had. But of course evolution had a way of explaining it. There's a whole process to vision. Light has to be captured then processed to the brain to become an image. I thought you just look at things and boom, there it pops up. But science has a way of proofing all of our bodily functions.
Chapters 8 - 11
Chapter 8: Making Scents
Again with the stories.... Shubin beat the odds against DNA testing machines and is still digging dirt :) woo-hoo!!! But really without still being able to do such things we wouldn't be reading such a thought-provoking book. Interesting side note fact I didn't know that although only active in the nasal area, smell cells are in all the areas of our body, I liked Shubin's simplistic analogy of the lock and key method in regards to the odor and the nerve receptor. It is Shubin's ability to simplify the complex concepts that make this book both intriguing yet still learning tool. I loved seeing Shubin tie in scents with the fish; I thought we might have lost that for a while? When we think about it a lot of our time does go into smelling the things around so in turn, I think to learn about scents is beneficial.
Chapter 9: Vision
Imagine that, a lot of the processing for your sight and such happens in the brain. Go Figure! And may I just say the diagram depicted in this chapter was extremely helpful in seeing the effects of eyes coming into focus. Light-changing molecules are impressive they change shape, recharge in the dark, and are the epitome of your seeing ability.
Chapter 10: Ears
Well, it's only fair to say that with the ear chapter we will learn more about how the sound and organisms necessary in this aspect of our body's duties. Think as fish to humans we went from gills to arches to our ears and that evolution has lead to diversity and abundant amount of species. The most interesting part to know however was that the device on our body that allows one to hear what is said around them comes from no other then the jelly fish. Although the ear organ system is controlled by multiple genes the function it serves is crucial and yet not at all new.
Chapter 11: The Meaning of it All
This was the chapter I have been waiting for! Well I will be the first to say, this book took me by great surprise. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it at all in fact I was dreading having to read it at all. Yet after the first chapter, Shubin's first personal experience story, I was hooked. You go into reading it thinking it's impossible there is no way I am the relative of a fish and yet you're proved completely wrong. This book taught me so many things about how the our bodies work and what goes on under the surface. The chapter when we looked into the brain had to be my favorite part because it just left you knowing a zillion times more information then you would even think to understand.
hahaha... all in all it was a great read!!! and I'm ready for bio :)) I hope
Again with the stories.... Shubin beat the odds against DNA testing machines and is still digging dirt :) woo-hoo!!! But really without still being able to do such things we wouldn't be reading such a thought-provoking book. Interesting side note fact I didn't know that although only active in the nasal area, smell cells are in all the areas of our body, I liked Shubin's simplistic analogy of the lock and key method in regards to the odor and the nerve receptor. It is Shubin's ability to simplify the complex concepts that make this book both intriguing yet still learning tool. I loved seeing Shubin tie in scents with the fish; I thought we might have lost that for a while? When we think about it a lot of our time does go into smelling the things around so in turn, I think to learn about scents is beneficial.
Chapter 9: Vision
Imagine that, a lot of the processing for your sight and such happens in the brain. Go Figure! And may I just say the diagram depicted in this chapter was extremely helpful in seeing the effects of eyes coming into focus. Light-changing molecules are impressive they change shape, recharge in the dark, and are the epitome of your seeing ability.
Chapter 10: Ears
Well, it's only fair to say that with the ear chapter we will learn more about how the sound and organisms necessary in this aspect of our body's duties. Think as fish to humans we went from gills to arches to our ears and that evolution has lead to diversity and abundant amount of species. The most interesting part to know however was that the device on our body that allows one to hear what is said around them comes from no other then the jelly fish. Although the ear organ system is controlled by multiple genes the function it serves is crucial and yet not at all new.
Chapter 11: The Meaning of it All
This was the chapter I have been waiting for! Well I will be the first to say, this book took me by great surprise. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it at all in fact I was dreading having to read it at all. Yet after the first chapter, Shubin's first personal experience story, I was hooked. You go into reading it thinking it's impossible there is no way I am the relative of a fish and yet you're proved completely wrong. This book taught me so many things about how the our bodies work and what goes on under the surface. The chapter when we looked into the brain had to be my favorite part because it just left you knowing a zillion times more information then you would even think to understand.
hahaha... all in all it was a great read!!! and I'm ready for bio :)) I hope
Chapter 8,9, 10, and 11
Chapter 8: Making Scents
I think it was really cool how Shubin compared smell to music and chords. It makes such a complex issue more condense and easily follow-able. In this chapter Shubin talks about how humans are related to ancient fish through smell and how the same fishes that have arms and legs also had internal and external nostrils. Shubin also talks about how jaw less fish reveal that they have a small number of odor genes. A bigger discovery that Shubin explains in this chapter is that in oceanic mammals such as dolphins they use their nostrils not for smelling, but for breathing and that over time it slowly developed into smelling.
Chapter 9: Vision
Shubin right off the backs brings the readers engaged into the passage. When he is talking about his only experience with an ancient eye it makes the readers feel as though they want to find an ancient eye also. It is also brought up by Shubin that the eyes rarely are preserved in ancient bones, but rather stronger bones such as teeth or scales survive to be seen. I have been noticing that Shubin relates many of the subjects in the chapters to common, every day items, things that can be relatable to everyone, not just scientists. When Shubin is talking about our camera eyes, I would have been lost without the picture on the other page. The information is interesting, just a lot to comprehend for me without any visuals. Shubin brings up a surprising information when he talks about how we can thank bacteria for opsins.
Chapter 10: Ears
In this chapter Shubin talks about ears and how many animals do not have external ears like humans. He then goes on about how our ears are deprived from gill arches from fish. Humans and sharks are also similar in the aspect that human ears are related and similar to their upper jaw. Both perform the same functions as the other. It is cool when Shubin talks about when a person tilts their head the brain receives signals informing the body that the body is tilted. It is almost as if the ears were trying to save the person from injury. It is interesting the way that Shubin illustrates the three different parts of the ear and their association to all parts of different fishes.
Chapter 11: The Meaning of it All
In this chapter Shubin sums up all of the previous chapters. This chapter really goes into everything as a whole and doesn't just talk about the single chapters, but all the chapters as a whole. My favorite part of the whole chapter was the "law of everything" because it talks about what many people always say, yet no one hears. Everything has a parent, and everything is connected. It somewhat makes everything seems small and ordinary when it is said though. It was funny when Shubin was talking about the clown mutations and how each mutation formed into the next generation and the next. This chapter also emphasizes family trees and evolution. Shubin really makes it his point in order to show the people how things progress in life and how everything starts somewhere. Shubin seems a little depressing when he states that everything we are comes with a price. It makes our evolution seem somewhat of a fraud or a theft from our ancestors.
Chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11
Chapter 8:
In this chapter, Shubin explained how by extracting DNA from any tissue of a living thing, many details about that particular specie's history is revealed, including the sense of smell. It fascinated me how in the beginning of the chapter, he explained how anyone can extract DNA in his or her's own kitchen with little effort and time, and be amazed. For a minute, I thought about going in my kitchen and actually trying out that, but decided to get a group of friends and try it - to see if it really does work. Shubin, also compares the analogy of smell to a chord, and how, like a chord, receptors and molecules work together to create an odor. Lastly, what fascinated me in this chapter was how many genes in human bodies are present, but remain silent and can be no longer used by a body.
Chapter 9:
Shubin talked about how essential vision is for every living organism. It was easy for me to understand this chapter because he broke it down into three sections: light-gathering molecules, tissues, and genes. One detail that struck me was how he compared the molecule in vertebrate eyes, opsin, to bacteria and ultimately stated that "modified bits of ancient bacteria lie inside our retina, helping us see" (153). Shubin also explained how there are invertebrates that are a living bridge between invertebrate eyes and vertebrate eyes because they consist of both kinds of eyes- such as the Polychaetes that have our kind of eyes in a primitive form.
Chapter 10:
Chapter ten started off with talking about the external ear, then talking about the middle ear, and finally ending with the inner ear. The external ear, Shubin explained, is a recently new addition and is only found in mammals. Though some amphibians and reptiles have ears that can be seen, they have no pinna (the projecting part of an ear lying outside). Shubin then talks about the middle ear and the three bones: malleus, incus, and stapes. While explaining the three bones, Shubin remarks that the jaw of a reptile transformed to two ear bones (malleus and incus). This happened when the jaws of reptiles slowly started becoming smaller and eventually mammals evolved and the gill arches of the reptiles (in their jaws) became the gill arches of mammals ( in their ears). Lastly, Shubin talked about the inner ear, which has many functions, including allowing us to hear, telling us which was our head is tilted, and lastly in recording how quickly our head is moving or tilting. The inner ear is fascinating as it reveals so much about how human ears and eyes are extremely similar, connected, and work together.
Chapter 11:
Lastly, in chapter eleven, Shubin summed up his points and revealed why he believes that there is an "inner fish" lying within all of us. It was interesting to see how Shubin actually connected all of his chapters in this chapter and showed that mammals are all descendants with modifications. The bozo family tree, personally, helped me see how each descendant is modified from the past and is somehow better. Also, the humans-polar bears- turtles- fish connection revealed that they are a deciphering family tree and have a pattern of relativity. Shubin compares groupings based on "hundreds of genetic, embryological, and anatomical features" (183) to peeling an onion, exposing layer after layer of history - starting with the basic features of fishes and ending with microbial bacteria. Shubin also stated that humans constantly get sick (heart diseases, strokes, obesity, etc.) because our ancestors weren't built to be able to sit for countless hours on a couch, run and walk for tremendous periods of time, or talk, think, and grasp. For this reason, humans and other organisms are to be flawed one way or another.
All in all, this book proved to be quite interesting and delighting in many chapters, but also dull and repetitive in some. It definitely renewed my interest and questioned my beliefs on evolution.
Chapters 8-11
Ch 8 Making Scents
This chapter talked about the olfactory and how it works. It was interesting to learn that humans have lots of genes just for smelling. There is a receptor gene for each chemical type, causing these genes to make up 3 percent of all our genes. I thought it was really interesting that we have 300 genes that are useless, but are still carried in each generation. This shows that mutations and moderations took place in the fewer genes that older creatures had, which got passed down. These useless genes became useless as humans slowly began to rely more on sight than smell.
Ch 9 Vision
It was harder understanding all the information about the eyes. But something that I found interesting was that as the environment creatures lived in changed, from less colors to more colors, it caused a switch in the eyes to color vision. Shubin also talked about the eyeless gene in flies and the Pax 6 genes in mice. The connection of eyes of different creatures made much more sense when he described the experiment involving these genes. The mouse gene was able to produce a fly eye on the fly, which shows that these two genes control the development of eyes.
Ch 10 Ears
Something new I realized is that only mammals have external ears. I was the most interested when reading about the three ear bones and its connections to reptiles and fish. The bone stapes is the same thing as a bone in the jaw of a fish, the hyomandibula. It got smaller and smaller as fish began to walk on land, finally becoming the stapes in human ears. And the malleus and incus were moderated from the jaws of reptiles. I also learned that the neuromast organs in fish are the basically the same things as our inner ears, except they have evolved to serve different functions.
Ch 11 The Meaning of it All
This chapter was super long, but it summarized everything Shubin addressed, and the significance and purpose of all that information. This chapter taught me that every single creature is a moderation of its parents. His reference to the "full bozo" helped me to understand that you can take generations of a family and group them into groups, subgroups, and so on with their modifications. Every connection Shubin made about our ears, eyes, hands, skulls, etc serves to show that groupings of characteristics can be made as you follow along the evolutionary process. And lastly, the reason for the defects in our bodies and our health issues is that our bodies right now were not exactly made for this present time. But, we can study our past to help address the ways we can live healthier.
-Sarah You (:
This chapter talked about the olfactory and how it works. It was interesting to learn that humans have lots of genes just for smelling. There is a receptor gene for each chemical type, causing these genes to make up 3 percent of all our genes. I thought it was really interesting that we have 300 genes that are useless, but are still carried in each generation. This shows that mutations and moderations took place in the fewer genes that older creatures had, which got passed down. These useless genes became useless as humans slowly began to rely more on sight than smell.
Ch 9 Vision
It was harder understanding all the information about the eyes. But something that I found interesting was that as the environment creatures lived in changed, from less colors to more colors, it caused a switch in the eyes to color vision. Shubin also talked about the eyeless gene in flies and the Pax 6 genes in mice. The connection of eyes of different creatures made much more sense when he described the experiment involving these genes. The mouse gene was able to produce a fly eye on the fly, which shows that these two genes control the development of eyes.
Ch 10 Ears
Something new I realized is that only mammals have external ears. I was the most interested when reading about the three ear bones and its connections to reptiles and fish. The bone stapes is the same thing as a bone in the jaw of a fish, the hyomandibula. It got smaller and smaller as fish began to walk on land, finally becoming the stapes in human ears. And the malleus and incus were moderated from the jaws of reptiles. I also learned that the neuromast organs in fish are the basically the same things as our inner ears, except they have evolved to serve different functions.
Ch 11 The Meaning of it All
This chapter was super long, but it summarized everything Shubin addressed, and the significance and purpose of all that information. This chapter taught me that every single creature is a moderation of its parents. His reference to the "full bozo" helped me to understand that you can take generations of a family and group them into groups, subgroups, and so on with their modifications. Every connection Shubin made about our ears, eyes, hands, skulls, etc serves to show that groupings of characteristics can be made as you follow along the evolutionary process. And lastly, the reason for the defects in our bodies and our health issues is that our bodies right now were not exactly made for this present time. But, we can study our past to help address the ways we can live healthier.
-Sarah You (:
Chapters 8-11
Ch. 8: Making Scents
The first thing that I found quite amusing was how Shubin mentioned that there are specific receptors attached to different odor molecules. Even more surprising is the fact that we as humans basically traded our keen eyesight for have many odor genes that don't serve any functions within our bodies in the present. After reading about how scents are composed of atoms, I realized that the process of humans' and other living organsisms' ability to distinguish scents is actually quite complex.
Ch. 9: Vision
It was very interesting learning about the differences between the eyes of certain organisms; invertebrate animals have photo receptor organs, many insects have compound eyes, and humans have camera-type eyes. The way in which we humans perceive our surroundings is somewhat like recording a movie, taking reasonable breaks only during our sleep. Also, our eyes are adept to change in lighting, which helps us to better perceive the objects that are within our sights. In conclusion, I feel as if the human history of eyesight evidently proves the adaptation that we have made in terms of visualizing the world in which we live in.
Ch. 10: Ears
While learning about the structure and functions of the human ear was interesting, it was even more amazing to learn that fish use their inner ears to sense the water, just as humans use fluids in our ears to maintain steady balance. I was fascinated by how Shubin stated that the three-boned middle ear that is present in the ears of humans but not in all other animals allows us to hear higher frequency sounds. Does this mean that bats have four or five-bones middle ears? I learned that ears in general play vital roles in the survival and well-being of all living organisms.
Ch. 11: The Meaning of it All
First and foremost, I do admit that I have inherited much knowledge from Shubins book. I enjoyed reading about how many bodily functions of humans tend to share similarities with those of other animals. Furthermore, it caught my attention about how Shubin always related the information to the similar origin of the human species and the other species. Shubin's main point was summed up when he mentioned the biological "law of everything."
The first thing that I found quite amusing was how Shubin mentioned that there are specific receptors attached to different odor molecules. Even more surprising is the fact that we as humans basically traded our keen eyesight for have many odor genes that don't serve any functions within our bodies in the present. After reading about how scents are composed of atoms, I realized that the process of humans' and other living organsisms' ability to distinguish scents is actually quite complex.
Ch. 9: Vision
It was very interesting learning about the differences between the eyes of certain organisms; invertebrate animals have photo receptor organs, many insects have compound eyes, and humans have camera-type eyes. The way in which we humans perceive our surroundings is somewhat like recording a movie, taking reasonable breaks only during our sleep. Also, our eyes are adept to change in lighting, which helps us to better perceive the objects that are within our sights. In conclusion, I feel as if the human history of eyesight evidently proves the adaptation that we have made in terms of visualizing the world in which we live in.
Ch. 10: Ears
While learning about the structure and functions of the human ear was interesting, it was even more amazing to learn that fish use their inner ears to sense the water, just as humans use fluids in our ears to maintain steady balance. I was fascinated by how Shubin stated that the three-boned middle ear that is present in the ears of humans but not in all other animals allows us to hear higher frequency sounds. Does this mean that bats have four or five-bones middle ears? I learned that ears in general play vital roles in the survival and well-being of all living organisms.
Ch. 11: The Meaning of it All
First and foremost, I do admit that I have inherited much knowledge from Shubins book. I enjoyed reading about how many bodily functions of humans tend to share similarities with those of other animals. Furthermore, it caught my attention about how Shubin always related the information to the similar origin of the human species and the other species. Shubin's main point was summed up when he mentioned the biological "law of everything."
Chapter 8, 9, 10, 11
In chapter 8, Shubin talks about the complexity and purpose of our nose. Our sense of smell allows us to discriminate thousands of different odors that can help us survive in life and decipher whether something is pleasant or not. Shubin tells us about what our noses do each time we inhale. When we sniff, we suck in odor molecules which go behind our nose and gets trapped by the mucous lining our nasal passage. In the nasal passage, their are millions of nerve cells that then send signals to our brain. It is fascinating how one can extract DNA from any tissue in your body to learn about the history and functions of it. Although the nose is often taken for granted, humans devote about 3 percent of our genome to odor genes.
In chapter 9, we learn about the importance of vision. The role of the eye is to capture light in a profound way that it can be carried to the brain and processed into an image Our eyes can function in several unique ways, it adjusts automatically in different settings. For example, are eyes are sensitive to a dark room for the first few seconds, but after being in there for awhile, our eyes adjust and we are capable of seeing more clearly what is in front of us. I learned that opsin is an essential protein inside the eye that helps gather light molecules. We use different opsins to see in black, white, or color. The mutations that occur revolving the eye in this chapter portray how humans are very much similar to a fly or mouse through the DNA structures and sequences. The eyeless (Pax 6), controls the development in all living creatures with eyes.
Ch10: Our ears are distinguished through three parts: external, middle, and inner. The external ear is the outer visible part that sticks out of the side of our head, this is wear we differ from sharks. The middle contains little ear bones, many mammals and other creatures acquire this trait as well. The tiny bones inside the human ear is the same as the rod in the upper jar of a fish. The inner ear is a tube that contains gel-filled sacs. It is used for hearing as well as telling us which way our head is tilted and recording the speed at which our head is accelerating or stopping. The entire system in our head that allows us to perceive position is connected to our eye muscles and connections in our brain.
Ch 11: Shubin sums up all his ideas and points and concludes by giving us an overview of the connections between humans and creatures. Shubin states that every living thing evolved from some parental genetic information. This creates the biological mechanism of heredity. All of our ancestors pass down various traits that later generations continue to obtain, for instance, a squeaky nose or floppy feet. It was informative when Shubin explains the causes for diseases that humans have.
In chapter 9, we learn about the importance of vision. The role of the eye is to capture light in a profound way that it can be carried to the brain and processed into an image Our eyes can function in several unique ways, it adjusts automatically in different settings. For example, are eyes are sensitive to a dark room for the first few seconds, but after being in there for awhile, our eyes adjust and we are capable of seeing more clearly what is in front of us. I learned that opsin is an essential protein inside the eye that helps gather light molecules. We use different opsins to see in black, white, or color. The mutations that occur revolving the eye in this chapter portray how humans are very much similar to a fly or mouse through the DNA structures and sequences. The eyeless (Pax 6), controls the development in all living creatures with eyes.
Ch10: Our ears are distinguished through three parts: external, middle, and inner. The external ear is the outer visible part that sticks out of the side of our head, this is wear we differ from sharks. The middle contains little ear bones, many mammals and other creatures acquire this trait as well. The tiny bones inside the human ear is the same as the rod in the upper jar of a fish. The inner ear is a tube that contains gel-filled sacs. It is used for hearing as well as telling us which way our head is tilted and recording the speed at which our head is accelerating or stopping. The entire system in our head that allows us to perceive position is connected to our eye muscles and connections in our brain.
Ch 11: Shubin sums up all his ideas and points and concludes by giving us an overview of the connections between humans and creatures. Shubin states that every living thing evolved from some parental genetic information. This creates the biological mechanism of heredity. All of our ancestors pass down various traits that later generations continue to obtain, for instance, a squeaky nose or floppy feet. It was informative when Shubin explains the causes for diseases that humans have.
Chapters 8-11
Chapter 8 Making Scents:
Frankly, I am glad that I was out of the focus on fetuses because they were rather confusing to say the least. This chapter was quite short, but it was concise and taught me something new. Knowing basic biology, I knew that molecules in the air reached a lining filled with nerves in the back of our nose to send a signal to our brains. What I didn't know was that the process of smelling used a lock and key mechanism on a molecular level between molecules and the nerves. Thus, I learned that our smells are an accumulation of hundreds and thousands of different molecules being signaled to synthesize a combination of smells. Hence, reading about Axel and Buck's discoveries about the immense amounts of genes dedicated to detecting different odors was no surprise. The topic on nasal structures and internal and external nostrils was a nice touch to connect us with the ability of smelling with other creatures. In summary, Shubin reveals that many primitive species had few genes dedicated to smelling that were neither prioritized on air or water. However, these genes split into water and air types and then duplicated into many similar variations that detect different smells. Then finally, some creatures shut down some of these genes as a result of different adaptations in which dolphins sacrificed smell for breathing through the blowhole and humans sacrificed acute scent for a priority in sight.
Chapter 9 Vision:
The analogies in this chapter were helpful in understanding opsins. Shubin starts off with the structure of the eye and how it is a combination of many different parts. Than, he states how the retina has light-receiving cells that transfer light to our brains as images. In these cells are opsins, which send the images to our brain, are like ink jet printers in which there are three different opsins in our light-receiving cells to make a color picture. Like how genes for scent duplicated in species, we humans have a duplicated gene for another opsin so that we could have the three opsins need to more fully perceive color. Shubin then connects us with our ancestors by pointing out the existence of opsins in bacteria, and how the perception of color was probably created in response to the development of different colors in food sources. In addition, Arendt's discoveries pointed out that similar aspects of the different eyes in invertebrae and vertebrae were found in a primitive worm; suggesting a branch into the two different eyes. On a genetic level, Hoge's discoveries showed that many creatures, such as the mice and fly, share a very similar gene that is dedicated to the creation of an eye in the area it is active. This further supported our connection with primitive species. This chapter was very similar to chapter 8.
Chapter 10 Ears:
Like the previous chapters, Shubin starts off with the structure of the ear, the external ear which funnels the sound, the middle ear that rattles with the eardrum and three little bones, and the inner ear which perceives sound by use of sensory cells and fluids. As mentioned in previous chapters, the bones in our middle ear weren't created out of thin air, but rather, they were adapted from different bones seen in the jaws of ancient creatures. Shubin refers to how the stapes came from the second arch and the malleus and incus came from the first arch. Then he states how as reptiles became more adapt to land, these jaw bones became smaller and smaller until they became small bones ideal for catching vibrations in air. I then learned that the small fluids in our inner ear shift as we shift and bends bristles in our ear to send a signal to our brain on our position (which is made even more sensitive due to the presence of small rocks with the fluid). I then learned that these fluids are linked with the control with the eye in a way that when the fluids shift, the eye shifts to adapt to the velocity or change. It was interesting to know that fish use a similar system to our inner ear with fluids and bristles to detect the motion and direction of a current. I was disappointed to learn that there was lacking evidence to suggest which system came first. Luckily, I learned that we are still connected to older creatures for the development of a coiled inner ear for hearing and three tubes for the perception of three dimensional acceleration. In addition, the discovery that the box jellyfish has a gene that seems like a primitive combination between Pax 6 and Pax 2 shows that eyes and ears share a similarity in disease and history.
Chapter 11: The Meaning of it All
This was a great conclusion and addressed many of the ideas and perceptions that were rumbling chaotically through my head and cleared them into an effective thought. He points out that our DNA, genes, and structures all show that we are modifications of our "parents". Like his "bozos" we are modified from our ancestors and pass the trait down in which the descendants are further modified until you get "cousins" and generations that have many differences. In context with other creatures, our similar traits with theirs' show a lineage and evidence of modification. The diagram displaying all the chapters topics ( multicellularity, hands and feet, etc...) show how we are modifications adding layers of modifications as years pass. In relation, because we are all modifications on a similar base, there is a limit to the amount of modifications that species can create to adapt. Thus, we humans aren't perfect and are still prone to disease and illness. In relation to illness, many of them derive from our ancestry that result in our exposure to them as humans. For example, our adaptation to hold fat to resist scarcity result in problems such as in the heart. In all, this was a great conclusion that summed up our unbreakable connection with our ancestors.
Frankly, I am glad that I was out of the focus on fetuses because they were rather confusing to say the least. This chapter was quite short, but it was concise and taught me something new. Knowing basic biology, I knew that molecules in the air reached a lining filled with nerves in the back of our nose to send a signal to our brains. What I didn't know was that the process of smelling used a lock and key mechanism on a molecular level between molecules and the nerves. Thus, I learned that our smells are an accumulation of hundreds and thousands of different molecules being signaled to synthesize a combination of smells. Hence, reading about Axel and Buck's discoveries about the immense amounts of genes dedicated to detecting different odors was no surprise. The topic on nasal structures and internal and external nostrils was a nice touch to connect us with the ability of smelling with other creatures. In summary, Shubin reveals that many primitive species had few genes dedicated to smelling that were neither prioritized on air or water. However, these genes split into water and air types and then duplicated into many similar variations that detect different smells. Then finally, some creatures shut down some of these genes as a result of different adaptations in which dolphins sacrificed smell for breathing through the blowhole and humans sacrificed acute scent for a priority in sight.
Chapter 9 Vision:
The analogies in this chapter were helpful in understanding opsins. Shubin starts off with the structure of the eye and how it is a combination of many different parts. Than, he states how the retina has light-receiving cells that transfer light to our brains as images. In these cells are opsins, which send the images to our brain, are like ink jet printers in which there are three different opsins in our light-receiving cells to make a color picture. Like how genes for scent duplicated in species, we humans have a duplicated gene for another opsin so that we could have the three opsins need to more fully perceive color. Shubin then connects us with our ancestors by pointing out the existence of opsins in bacteria, and how the perception of color was probably created in response to the development of different colors in food sources. In addition, Arendt's discoveries pointed out that similar aspects of the different eyes in invertebrae and vertebrae were found in a primitive worm; suggesting a branch into the two different eyes. On a genetic level, Hoge's discoveries showed that many creatures, such as the mice and fly, share a very similar gene that is dedicated to the creation of an eye in the area it is active. This further supported our connection with primitive species. This chapter was very similar to chapter 8.
Chapter 10 Ears:
Like the previous chapters, Shubin starts off with the structure of the ear, the external ear which funnels the sound, the middle ear that rattles with the eardrum and three little bones, and the inner ear which perceives sound by use of sensory cells and fluids. As mentioned in previous chapters, the bones in our middle ear weren't created out of thin air, but rather, they were adapted from different bones seen in the jaws of ancient creatures. Shubin refers to how the stapes came from the second arch and the malleus and incus came from the first arch. Then he states how as reptiles became more adapt to land, these jaw bones became smaller and smaller until they became small bones ideal for catching vibrations in air. I then learned that the small fluids in our inner ear shift as we shift and bends bristles in our ear to send a signal to our brain on our position (which is made even more sensitive due to the presence of small rocks with the fluid). I then learned that these fluids are linked with the control with the eye in a way that when the fluids shift, the eye shifts to adapt to the velocity or change. It was interesting to know that fish use a similar system to our inner ear with fluids and bristles to detect the motion and direction of a current. I was disappointed to learn that there was lacking evidence to suggest which system came first. Luckily, I learned that we are still connected to older creatures for the development of a coiled inner ear for hearing and three tubes for the perception of three dimensional acceleration. In addition, the discovery that the box jellyfish has a gene that seems like a primitive combination between Pax 6 and Pax 2 shows that eyes and ears share a similarity in disease and history.
Chapter 11: The Meaning of it All
This was a great conclusion and addressed many of the ideas and perceptions that were rumbling chaotically through my head and cleared them into an effective thought. He points out that our DNA, genes, and structures all show that we are modifications of our "parents". Like his "bozos" we are modified from our ancestors and pass the trait down in which the descendants are further modified until you get "cousins" and generations that have many differences. In context with other creatures, our similar traits with theirs' show a lineage and evidence of modification. The diagram displaying all the chapters topics ( multicellularity, hands and feet, etc...) show how we are modifications adding layers of modifications as years pass. In relation, because we are all modifications on a similar base, there is a limit to the amount of modifications that species can create to adapt. Thus, we humans aren't perfect and are still prone to disease and illness. In relation to illness, many of them derive from our ancestry that result in our exposure to them as humans. For example, our adaptation to hold fat to resist scarcity result in problems such as in the heart. In all, this was a great conclusion that summed up our unbreakable connection with our ancestors.
Chapter 8-11
Chapter 8: Just like previous chapters, Shubin enabled the readers to grasp and anticipate what the following chapter would entail. Though the process of smelling seems complicated, it was easy to apprehend through analogies he provided such as the lock-and-mechanism and a chord. Similar to that of a chord, I've learned an odor is the product of signals from receptors keyed to different odor molecules. Also, it was interesting to discover the main difference from humans and lampreys for they extract odors from water instead of air. I finally knew why dogs are used as trackers: they have several genes devoted to smelling meaning they are more sharp to differentiate smells. On top of this, I was fascinated how nasal genes in dolphins and whales had been modified to be used for breathing rather than smelling.
Chapter 9: I've wondered how paleontologists were able to explain evolution involving vision since there aren't as much fossils record as bones. As I read on, I figured it was possible. I merely thought we use our eyes for sight; however, that wasn't the case because they need to capture light for the brain to process an image. Never would I learn how complex our eye process was if it wasn't for this book. It takes numerous steps, for instance, a light needs to pass through the cornea then through the lens which later engage in light receptors and so on. While reading, I thought to myself, 'Just like the dog with extra nasal genes, if a specie had more "ocular genes" would it have better vision than others?' I was unexpectedly absorbed with this chapter as Shubin mentioned a real life situation that occurs almost every night when I am about to sleep. I eventually discovered why it was impossible to see anything when I went from a bright place into my dark room--- the light gathering molecules need time to recharge. It was a bit nightmarish towards the end when Walter Gehring turned on the eyeless gene on a body and an eye had developed there.
Chapter10: Again, I never expected to discover so many things through this book. Who knew we had three parts to our ear when we all we can see is the external part? From Shubin, I realized there is actually three which includes the middle and inner as well. I was surprised myself when I read "It surprises most people to learn that some of the most distinctive traits of mammals lie inside the ear." It is known that mammalian middle ear are different from other animal for they have three bones whereas reptiles and amphibians have only one. It was astonishing to learn Reichert's proposal that parts of the ears of mammals are the same thing as parts of the jaws of reptiles and Gaup's work that the two other middle ear (malleus and incus) evolved from bones set in the back of the reptilian jaw. Their notion seemed hard to believe since the tie between reptiles and mammals were subtle. It was more surprising when Shubin noted that a bone inside a human's ear is the same thing as the rod in the upper jaw of a fish, which ultimately shows that humans evolved from a fish. To me, this chapter stood out the most as it contained an experiment for readers to attempt: "..move your head back and forth while looking at the page. Keep your eyes fixed in one place as you move your head."
Chapter 11: After reading the very last chapter, I truly became fond of Shubin and his work. I was able to gain a profound insight in evolution in which humans and living creature share several common traits. For once I wasn't as shocked as before when there was a list of features we shared with animals including polar bears, turtle, fish, WORM, and jellyfish. I learned just as peeling an onion, we expose layer after layer of history as we see features we share with mammals and by looking deeper, with fish. Most importantly, I obtained a life lesson that if we want to avoid heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and stroke, we should apportion our meals according to our daily activities and move more often to pump the blood up the veins. It was terrifying to learn that with lack of exercise in the legs, problems can develop causing blood pools in the veins. Never did I know choking was harmful until now for food can get lodged in the trachea through which we breathe. Nonetheless, I was intrigued to discover that hic, hiccup is an outcome of the history we share with tadpoles and I liked how Shubin threw in a fun fact that the longest hiccups lasted from 1922 to 1990.
:)
Chapter 9: I've wondered how paleontologists were able to explain evolution involving vision since there aren't as much fossils record as bones. As I read on, I figured it was possible. I merely thought we use our eyes for sight; however, that wasn't the case because they need to capture light for the brain to process an image. Never would I learn how complex our eye process was if it wasn't for this book. It takes numerous steps, for instance, a light needs to pass through the cornea then through the lens which later engage in light receptors and so on. While reading, I thought to myself, 'Just like the dog with extra nasal genes, if a specie had more "ocular genes" would it have better vision than others?' I was unexpectedly absorbed with this chapter as Shubin mentioned a real life situation that occurs almost every night when I am about to sleep. I eventually discovered why it was impossible to see anything when I went from a bright place into my dark room--- the light gathering molecules need time to recharge. It was a bit nightmarish towards the end when Walter Gehring turned on the eyeless gene on a body and an eye had developed there.
Chapter10: Again, I never expected to discover so many things through this book. Who knew we had three parts to our ear when we all we can see is the external part? From Shubin, I realized there is actually three which includes the middle and inner as well. I was surprised myself when I read "It surprises most people to learn that some of the most distinctive traits of mammals lie inside the ear." It is known that mammalian middle ear are different from other animal for they have three bones whereas reptiles and amphibians have only one. It was astonishing to learn Reichert's proposal that parts of the ears of mammals are the same thing as parts of the jaws of reptiles and Gaup's work that the two other middle ear (malleus and incus) evolved from bones set in the back of the reptilian jaw. Their notion seemed hard to believe since the tie between reptiles and mammals were subtle. It was more surprising when Shubin noted that a bone inside a human's ear is the same thing as the rod in the upper jaw of a fish, which ultimately shows that humans evolved from a fish. To me, this chapter stood out the most as it contained an experiment for readers to attempt: "..move your head back and forth while looking at the page. Keep your eyes fixed in one place as you move your head."
Chapter 11: After reading the very last chapter, I truly became fond of Shubin and his work. I was able to gain a profound insight in evolution in which humans and living creature share several common traits. For once I wasn't as shocked as before when there was a list of features we shared with animals including polar bears, turtle, fish, WORM, and jellyfish. I learned just as peeling an onion, we expose layer after layer of history as we see features we share with mammals and by looking deeper, with fish. Most importantly, I obtained a life lesson that if we want to avoid heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and stroke, we should apportion our meals according to our daily activities and move more often to pump the blood up the veins. It was terrifying to learn that with lack of exercise in the legs, problems can develop causing blood pools in the veins. Never did I know choking was harmful until now for food can get lodged in the trachea through which we breathe. Nonetheless, I was intrigued to discover that hic, hiccup is an outcome of the history we share with tadpoles and I liked how Shubin threw in a fun fact that the longest hiccups lasted from 1922 to 1990.
:)
Chapter 10-11
Chapter 10:
Besides my eyes which fail me almost everyday, my ears are the most keen out of all my senses. Without them I would not have done the same things I do. the three parts of the ears did not surprise me because we practically learned all of this during middle and elementary school, but the part that interested me was the connection that reptiles and mammals have in the middle portion of the ear. The jaw line of the reptile would seem at first nothing like the tiny ear bones, but the development and the shift from the lower head to the middle was remarkable. This gives us an insiders look into the evolution of human beings. From jawless fish, jawed fish, boned fish, amphibians, and reptiles to mammals, everything is connected from the bottom to the top.
What really struck me dumbfounded as well as Shubin was the notion that in 1837, several decades before Darwin published his book of evolution, Karl Reichert found out that parts of our ears are the same as the jaw bones for reptiles without mentioning evolution. I guess it was because of the way of thinking in the scientific community in that time period, but this supported Darwin's theory, I do not understand how many scientists of that age rejected The Orgin of Species.
The "ears" or neuromast organ on water animals were remarkable. These organs are all over the body of that creature and for them to sense how the water is moving and to utilize that to find prey is amazing. Yes, animals on land can do that also with thier sense of smell, but to do the same function but in another organ really distinguishes water animals to land animals, but the connection that we have with water and land is the same but with some differences just like how chapter 11 put it. Subunits.
Another part of this chapter that I enjoyed was the effects of alcohol. When I read the chapter, I was left thinking," Oh, so this is why people act like a bunch of crazies." The ethanol leaks into their gelly fluid in the inner ear making the gelly dense which makes the hair like projections sway and make them think they are moving when they see that they aren't. The chain reaction from chemicals and nerves causes the person to breakdown with nausea as well as a headeache even when they wake up the next morning. The feeling of knowing is great because I always wanted to know why people do that. On the other hand, I had no desire to learn the history of human beings because I wasn't that knowledgable in that section of science, but now that I know a lot about it, I can proudly say to the person next to me, that beef and I are related.
Chapter 11:
The Taxonomy story was funny and great, I even feel the same when having to listen to lectures about why audiobooks are ruining imagination and how they are silencing our voices. However, this situation is different from mine. Taxonomy is actually every important. This study engulfs every single study of science in the field: from single cells to mulitcelled animals. The fields of study are so large and diverse that one is in charge of categorizing the subunits of it. Speaking of subunits, according to the law of biology," Every living thing on the planet had parents,"(174). So as said in the book, if I go way back in time then, I evolved from a worm, yeast, and a fly, but also related to every living thing in the world. This makes me feel a lot less lonely, so the big purple dinosaur was right after all," I love you, you love me, we are a big family..."
That family was developed and then subdivided from many cells to a body plan like ours to skulls and backbones to hands and feet to three-boned middle ear to a bipedal gait and enormous brains. That is one big family which would all lead to one perfect(or almost perfect) creature that walks the Earth this very moment. But then again, nothing is perfect, as explained by Shubin, I realized that there must be a balance between good and evil and therefore our body has both. We have technology that makes our lives comfortable, but we also have self-destructing modes when we use advances. We have the best body systems which can also turn against us at anytime.
Besides the diseases and minor problems such as hiccups, the connection and the little bits of behavior we share that is exemplified in this book helped me realize that I and everyone is not the only creatures that live in this planet. Every species is our family but many do not repect that. So I hope that through this reading, everyone will realize that not only is our world going under because we don't realize this but so is our lives. History will turn back on us both mentally and physically. We must act now.
CHaPtERr eIGhT
What i really found interesting in this chapter was how Shubin said we could find and extract DNA at home. I would really like the opportunity to do that at home or school but mom or budget cuts will not allow it to happen. I believe that a centrifuge is created once all the bits are made into mush and the valuable stuff and the invaluable stuff will separate because of liquid density or because the important parts are always at the top.
Within this chapter, I found fascination in the illustration shown on page 151 of the development of the eye. This representation makes me actually appreciate my eyes and their importance and worth in what and how it sees. I also like how he explains the difference between rods and cones. I really never understood them until now. They are very important in seeing light and in darkness. I had a friend do research based on astigmatism and light and dark perceptiveness.
Once again the illustrations in this chapter really fascinated me. The pictures on page 163 really made me spend time in understanding how they are valuable to us. The picture shows how the bones in our middle ear developed from useless bones to ones that help make us hear.
I really like the subheading in this chapter because it is very true. It first brings all the chapters in this book together and second we are like a zoo, comprised of many different exhibits-different organs and different bones. Also the analogy to a family of Bozo clowns helps understand the genetic evolution that play an important part in everyday life and in the overall analysis of where we come from.
Ch. 8-11
Ch. 8
I didn't know our nose could have such a profound impact on the way we perceive our world. Odors can elicit impulses in our brains. The smell of something may occasionally bring long buried feelings to the surface. The nose is also a very handy survival tool; the smell of tasty food tells us that we're hungry, the smell of sewage will make us feel ill, we are hardwired to avoid certain things because the smell is that bad. What really surprised me was the facts that fish also had the ability to smell inside a small cavity in the head. Living in the ocean, i would never find a reason or purpose for why fish would need the ability to smell anything.
Ch.9
Our eyes are one of our most useful parts of the body, it allows us to see. Our vision allows us to see where we are going, put things in the right places, or find something we are looking for. I can only imagine how hard it is for people who are blind or are colorblind. When you talk about an eye, you will think that the eye is the one who creates or sees the picture, but in reality the brain is the one processing what the eyes see and creates a picture. It is also interesting to note that our 2 tiny eyes are composed of about 70% of our sensory cells and the 30% are within our bodies.
Ch.10
This chapter described all the parts of the ears and explained the functions of the external, middle, and inner ears of organisms. What surprised me was when Shubin said there was fluid inside our ears that can tell us when our head is tilted. I wouldn't have known this because i absolutely hate when water or anything else gets into my ear after a day at the beach or at a swimming pool. When we drink too much alcohol, a substance called ethanol will diffuse into the fluid that's in our inner ear. When that happens, it stimulates our brain and tricks it, it believes we are moving when we are actually not. Ethanol will also extend the problem to our eyes, our brain thinks we spinning and it will pass along that information to our eye muscles as well. This chapter was a really interesting read.
Ch. 11
I was relieved to find that this was the last chapter of the book. This chapter summed up everything from all 10 chapters and put it into 1 organized chapter that was easy to understand and read. The bozo diagram helped me remember that we all received characteristics from a common ancestor and overtime, we developed different characteristics which lead to evolution. I will have probably forgotten most of this information by the time we talk about it again but i really hope not
I didn't know our nose could have such a profound impact on the way we perceive our world. Odors can elicit impulses in our brains. The smell of something may occasionally bring long buried feelings to the surface. The nose is also a very handy survival tool; the smell of tasty food tells us that we're hungry, the smell of sewage will make us feel ill, we are hardwired to avoid certain things because the smell is that bad. What really surprised me was the facts that fish also had the ability to smell inside a small cavity in the head. Living in the ocean, i would never find a reason or purpose for why fish would need the ability to smell anything.
Ch.9
Our eyes are one of our most useful parts of the body, it allows us to see. Our vision allows us to see where we are going, put things in the right places, or find something we are looking for. I can only imagine how hard it is for people who are blind or are colorblind. When you talk about an eye, you will think that the eye is the one who creates or sees the picture, but in reality the brain is the one processing what the eyes see and creates a picture. It is also interesting to note that our 2 tiny eyes are composed of about 70% of our sensory cells and the 30% are within our bodies.
Ch.10
This chapter described all the parts of the ears and explained the functions of the external, middle, and inner ears of organisms. What surprised me was when Shubin said there was fluid inside our ears that can tell us when our head is tilted. I wouldn't have known this because i absolutely hate when water or anything else gets into my ear after a day at the beach or at a swimming pool. When we drink too much alcohol, a substance called ethanol will diffuse into the fluid that's in our inner ear. When that happens, it stimulates our brain and tricks it, it believes we are moving when we are actually not. Ethanol will also extend the problem to our eyes, our brain thinks we spinning and it will pass along that information to our eye muscles as well. This chapter was a really interesting read.
Ch. 11
I was relieved to find that this was the last chapter of the book. This chapter summed up everything from all 10 chapters and put it into 1 organized chapter that was easy to understand and read. The bozo diagram helped me remember that we all received characteristics from a common ancestor and overtime, we developed different characteristics which lead to evolution. I will have probably forgotten most of this information by the time we talk about it again but i really hope not
Yes!!! its its the last post for my summer!!!!:)
Chapter 8: Making Scents
This section was very interesting to me because it shows how all organisms are similar structures because of the smell. Shubin states that odor is a world changer. there was a diagram that helped make the process to grasp about odors much easier. We as humans have more genes for smelling then we do sight.a scent is made from as molecules and atoms. the scenes of smell is needed for the human survival.
Chapter 9: Vision.
there is a eyeless gene.WOW i didn't know that. me being a person who wears glasses to help me see i was kind of scared. i use to hate sitting in the back of the class and not being able to see and i felt that i was missing me something.my eyes are very important to me and to be able no to see would make me feel so bad. that's why my eyes are so important.
Chapter 10: Ears
the scenes of hearing is an amazing and without it i wouldn't be able to hear my precious music. something important i took from this chapter is that our ears are full of liquid. there is a tiny sack of fluid in our inner ear and if we tilt our head the sack will tell the brain when you are tilting your head. this is a important thing that i took from this chapter.
Chapter 11: The meaning of it all
the whole book in all was to was kind of confusing from the beginning. but the last chapter made it all come together for me. the fact that we come from fish is still not sitting well with me because i believe in GOD but i can accept the beliefs of other people. fossils are the things that help people understand where they come from and tells us things about the past and this book was interesting to read to learn something new.
This section was very interesting to me because it shows how all organisms are similar structures because of the smell. Shubin states that odor is a world changer. there was a diagram that helped make the process to grasp about odors much easier. We as humans have more genes for smelling then we do sight.a scent is made from as molecules and atoms. the scenes of smell is needed for the human survival.
Chapter 9: Vision.
there is a eyeless gene.WOW i didn't know that. me being a person who wears glasses to help me see i was kind of scared. i use to hate sitting in the back of the class and not being able to see and i felt that i was missing me something.my eyes are very important to me and to be able no to see would make me feel so bad. that's why my eyes are so important.
Chapter 10: Ears
the scenes of hearing is an amazing and without it i wouldn't be able to hear my precious music. something important i took from this chapter is that our ears are full of liquid. there is a tiny sack of fluid in our inner ear and if we tilt our head the sack will tell the brain when you are tilting your head. this is a important thing that i took from this chapter.
Chapter 11: The meaning of it all
the whole book in all was to was kind of confusing from the beginning. but the last chapter made it all come together for me. the fact that we come from fish is still not sitting well with me because i believe in GOD but i can accept the beliefs of other people. fossils are the things that help people understand where they come from and tells us things about the past and this book was interesting to read to learn something new.
Chapters 6-11
Chapter 6
Well the first sentence of this chapter captured my attention right away. As I kept reading I was amazed by how tiny blobs of cell could turn into beautiful complex creatures such as birds, frogs, or trout. Von Baer's findings, with Christian Pander's financial help, were amazing. He found out that all organs can be traced to 1 out of 3 layers of tissue in the developing embryo. He then compared chicken embryos with anything else he could get his hands on and got the same results. I found this very interesting. Another thing I found interesting was the Hox gene in fruit flies and humans. The diagram of this just fascinated me. Overall, I really liked this chapter. It taught me that all animals are the same but different which is what Shubin has been trying to prove all along.
Chapter 7
While I was reading the chapter, I found it interesting ow Shubin Compared an animal assembling itself to a brick house. I always like how Shubin is creative and always compares things to each other to make it more interesting and easier to understand. As I kept reading, it was interesting the way Shubin talked about cancer because he again compared it to something and this time it was bullies. Just like bullies break down cooperative societies, cancers behave in the same way until they kill their larger community, the human body. This was my favorite part and I read it over and over agin cause I liked it so much. Overall, this chapter, for me, was very captivating and I think its my favorite so far.
Chapter 8
This chapter interested me from the beginning to the end. It was fascinating how Shubin described extracting DNA in a kitchen. It really does sound easy. Also, I found it interesting that our genes involved in sense of smell are present in all our cells even though they are only active in our nose. While reading I realized that sense of smell plays an important part in our life. We remember all kinds of smells so when we smell something, we are either attracted to it or revolted by it. Its amazing how smells can play a huge role in our lives. Furthermore, I liked how Shubin compared smell to a chord in music. Just as several notes act as one to create a chord, signals from lots of receptors keyed to different odor molecules create an odor. And as I kept reading on, Shubin compared how we breath to fish just as I predicted he would. I learned that there are two kinds of smelling genes: one for water and for air, but lampreys and hagfish have both. This means that these fish came before the gene split into two. This chapter was very interesting because I learned many things about the sense of smell that I wouldn't have known otherwise.
Chapter 9
Well, after reading the last chapter, I knew I was going to learn things about vision that I didn't know before just like I did with smell. I liked how Shubin started the chapter off with a story because it really captured my attention. As I read on to the part where Shubin talked about our eyes capturing light and our brains processing it as an image, I had to stop reading and look around. I was like wow our brains process the light as an image so quickly! He then went on to explain the process of how we see an image and I was just fascinated. Then Shubin went on, as I knew he would, to explain how our eyes are common to fish and other mammals. I fould light-gathering molecules fascinating and I really liked how Shubin explained their purpose. When I went on to read the tissues section, I was interested with how different kind of animals' eyes share common parts when we look to primitive invertebrates. When I read the genes section, I was amazed with the eyeless gene. Overall, I enjoyed learning many things about our "camera-eye."
Chapter 1o
When I started this chapter, I found it interesting how Shubin used adjectives like "snail-shell" and "plunger" to describe the ear. I always wondered how we are able to hear and Shubin explained it in a way I could understand. The diagram really helped me understand the outer, middle, and inner ear. I learned that our three middle ear bones are called malleus, incus, and stapes. Also, I found it unbelievable how the jaw of a reptile is like ear bones in reptiles. The diagram of how they were realted was really helpful and I'm glad it was there. Our inner ear has different parts for different functions. I thought it was just for hearing but its also for telling us that our head is tilted and for how fast our head is accelarating or stopping! The accelaration part of our ear is connected to our eye muscles which is just amazing. I also found it interestiong how we are connected to creatures like jellyfish. This chapter was just full of so much information that I had to read some of it over again. But overall, I really liked it and learned so many fascinting things.
Chapter 11
Finally, the last chapter! Well, this capter was mostly just a summary of everything and I must admit the bozo family tree gave me a laugh. I really liked how Shubin put all that was said in the previous chapters together; it really helped me understand things more. Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot which is funny because I thoght I was going to hate it. Well at least I learned never to judge a book by its cover. (:
Well the first sentence of this chapter captured my attention right away. As I kept reading I was amazed by how tiny blobs of cell could turn into beautiful complex creatures such as birds, frogs, or trout. Von Baer's findings, with Christian Pander's financial help, were amazing. He found out that all organs can be traced to 1 out of 3 layers of tissue in the developing embryo. He then compared chicken embryos with anything else he could get his hands on and got the same results. I found this very interesting. Another thing I found interesting was the Hox gene in fruit flies and humans. The diagram of this just fascinated me. Overall, I really liked this chapter. It taught me that all animals are the same but different which is what Shubin has been trying to prove all along.
Chapter 7
While I was reading the chapter, I found it interesting ow Shubin Compared an animal assembling itself to a brick house. I always like how Shubin is creative and always compares things to each other to make it more interesting and easier to understand. As I kept reading, it was interesting the way Shubin talked about cancer because he again compared it to something and this time it was bullies. Just like bullies break down cooperative societies, cancers behave in the same way until they kill their larger community, the human body. This was my favorite part and I read it over and over agin cause I liked it so much. Overall, this chapter, for me, was very captivating and I think its my favorite so far.
Chapter 8
This chapter interested me from the beginning to the end. It was fascinating how Shubin described extracting DNA in a kitchen. It really does sound easy. Also, I found it interesting that our genes involved in sense of smell are present in all our cells even though they are only active in our nose. While reading I realized that sense of smell plays an important part in our life. We remember all kinds of smells so when we smell something, we are either attracted to it or revolted by it. Its amazing how smells can play a huge role in our lives. Furthermore, I liked how Shubin compared smell to a chord in music. Just as several notes act as one to create a chord, signals from lots of receptors keyed to different odor molecules create an odor. And as I kept reading on, Shubin compared how we breath to fish just as I predicted he would. I learned that there are two kinds of smelling genes: one for water and for air, but lampreys and hagfish have both. This means that these fish came before the gene split into two. This chapter was very interesting because I learned many things about the sense of smell that I wouldn't have known otherwise.
Chapter 9
Well, after reading the last chapter, I knew I was going to learn things about vision that I didn't know before just like I did with smell. I liked how Shubin started the chapter off with a story because it really captured my attention. As I read on to the part where Shubin talked about our eyes capturing light and our brains processing it as an image, I had to stop reading and look around. I was like wow our brains process the light as an image so quickly! He then went on to explain the process of how we see an image and I was just fascinated. Then Shubin went on, as I knew he would, to explain how our eyes are common to fish and other mammals. I fould light-gathering molecules fascinating and I really liked how Shubin explained their purpose. When I went on to read the tissues section, I was interested with how different kind of animals' eyes share common parts when we look to primitive invertebrates. When I read the genes section, I was amazed with the eyeless gene. Overall, I enjoyed learning many things about our "camera-eye."
Chapter 1o
When I started this chapter, I found it interesting how Shubin used adjectives like "snail-shell" and "plunger" to describe the ear. I always wondered how we are able to hear and Shubin explained it in a way I could understand. The diagram really helped me understand the outer, middle, and inner ear. I learned that our three middle ear bones are called malleus, incus, and stapes. Also, I found it unbelievable how the jaw of a reptile is like ear bones in reptiles. The diagram of how they were realted was really helpful and I'm glad it was there. Our inner ear has different parts for different functions. I thought it was just for hearing but its also for telling us that our head is tilted and for how fast our head is accelarating or stopping! The accelaration part of our ear is connected to our eye muscles which is just amazing. I also found it interestiong how we are connected to creatures like jellyfish. This chapter was just full of so much information that I had to read some of it over again. But overall, I really liked it and learned so many fascinting things.
Chapter 11
Finally, the last chapter! Well, this capter was mostly just a summary of everything and I must admit the bozo family tree gave me a laugh. I really liked how Shubin put all that was said in the previous chapters together; it really helped me understand things more. Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot which is funny because I thoght I was going to hate it. Well at least I learned never to judge a book by its cover. (:
Chapter 8-11
Chapter 8:
This chapter was fairly interesting because of how it delved so much into the sense of smell, a sense I don't think about most of the time. The "lock-and-key messenger" was a unique way to see the way the sense of smell works. The bit about the haprey and fish being able to smell underwater was surprising. I was just at a pool party and can't fathom how a human could smell underwater, so I never really thought about a fish and their ability to smell. A lot goes into the sense of smell, like the amount of genes dedicated to smell (and a lot of the genes don't even work because of mutations). It's truly incredible. While I was reading this chapter, I couldn't help but think about the commercial with febreeze when the woman or man are put into a dirty room sprayed with febreeze and they say it smells nice and fresh...
Chapter 9:
I think I was fascinated with this chapter because it was relating to vision, and as I was reading it, I couldn't help but think, "So, this is exactly how I am able to see the words I'm reading..." Again, this book is making me actually appreciate bacteria, and now it helps me see with the eyes I have now...that's pretty awesome. Mildred Hoge's experiments with the eyeless creatures definitely caught my attention. It just sounded so gruesome, yet it helped so much with understanding the genes in our eyes. Gehring's experiments were insane (in a good way) and left me feeling speechless. He was able to add more eyes to different creatures and also gave a mouse a fly eye...
Chapter 10:
When I read "Ears", I could only think about music, and I was quickly willing to start this chapter (because I love listening to music). Considering the time, Karl Reichert's proposal was astonishing. He was brave for proposing his theory because it was before any real ideas of evolution. The middle ear was the most interesting section of the chapter to me because of how that same bone is in many other animals, but isn't used for the function of hearing. At the same time, though, I thought that the inner ear was interesting because of the fact that it does help with balance as well as hearing. The inner ear-eye connection was also fun to read about while I was shaking my head back and forth. :)
Chapter 11:
The "law of everything" surprised me, yet didn't. It was very obvious, yet I wouldn't have been able to guess that if someone asked me what the law of everything was. It definitely wouldn't have come to mind. I liked the "bozo" analogy because it just fit perfectly when describing descent with modification. I like how Shubin pulled back to the very beginning of the book because it was effective in bringing the book to it's conclusion. When he said "humanity comes at a cost", the first thing I thought about was when I either talk too much or scream too much (at a concert) and the next day, my voice goes out. This chapter was definitely fun to read (maybe even my favorite), and I didn't want to put the book down.
This chapter was fairly interesting because of how it delved so much into the sense of smell, a sense I don't think about most of the time. The "lock-and-key messenger" was a unique way to see the way the sense of smell works. The bit about the haprey and fish being able to smell underwater was surprising. I was just at a pool party and can't fathom how a human could smell underwater, so I never really thought about a fish and their ability to smell. A lot goes into the sense of smell, like the amount of genes dedicated to smell (and a lot of the genes don't even work because of mutations). It's truly incredible. While I was reading this chapter, I couldn't help but think about the commercial with febreeze when the woman or man are put into a dirty room sprayed with febreeze and they say it smells nice and fresh...
Chapter 9:
I think I was fascinated with this chapter because it was relating to vision, and as I was reading it, I couldn't help but think, "So, this is exactly how I am able to see the words I'm reading..." Again, this book is making me actually appreciate bacteria, and now it helps me see with the eyes I have now...that's pretty awesome. Mildred Hoge's experiments with the eyeless creatures definitely caught my attention. It just sounded so gruesome, yet it helped so much with understanding the genes in our eyes. Gehring's experiments were insane (in a good way) and left me feeling speechless. He was able to add more eyes to different creatures and also gave a mouse a fly eye...
Chapter 10:
When I read "Ears", I could only think about music, and I was quickly willing to start this chapter (because I love listening to music). Considering the time, Karl Reichert's proposal was astonishing. He was brave for proposing his theory because it was before any real ideas of evolution. The middle ear was the most interesting section of the chapter to me because of how that same bone is in many other animals, but isn't used for the function of hearing. At the same time, though, I thought that the inner ear was interesting because of the fact that it does help with balance as well as hearing. The inner ear-eye connection was also fun to read about while I was shaking my head back and forth. :)
Chapter 11:
The "law of everything" surprised me, yet didn't. It was very obvious, yet I wouldn't have been able to guess that if someone asked me what the law of everything was. It definitely wouldn't have come to mind. I liked the "bozo" analogy because it just fit perfectly when describing descent with modification. I like how Shubin pulled back to the very beginning of the book because it was effective in bringing the book to it's conclusion. When he said "humanity comes at a cost", the first thing I thought about was when I either talk too much or scream too much (at a concert) and the next day, my voice goes out. This chapter was definitely fun to read (maybe even my favorite), and I didn't want to put the book down.
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