Chapter 7: Adventures in Bodybuilding

This was my favorite chapter yet. It was simple, clear, and objective. Knowing basic biology, I knew enough to understand that our cells communicated with each other to work in unison to create an impressive biological machinery; the human body. However, I this chapter did reveal to me that the cells that create our different tissues and cells had to be literally connected together for something like the heart to not fall apart into individual cells. Shubin's explanation of these "rivets" was short and sweet. They allowed similar cells to connect and communicate. It is groups of cells like these that are similar to bodies. Thus, Shubin clearly connected this idea with creatures such as the sponge which had cells that connected, communicating, and divided by labor. In addition, it had molecules, such as collagens, that are present between cells. As always, I learned that this connected us to our ancestors. In this case, the dynamics that allows us to create bodies were present in microbes like choanoflagellates, but due to earth's conditions millions of years ago, our ancestors were unable to sustain bodies. All in all, I thought this was a brief but clear chapter.