Chapter 8-11

Making Scents:

Chapter 8 discusses our senses and how our scents help us survive. Being a musician myself, I loved how Shubin makes an analogy. He calls it a chord which is made up of several notes acting together as one. The chapter then moves on to talk about receptors. We see that fish have water-based receptors which make it possible for them to breathe under water whereas animals have air- based receptors which allow them to breathe air. Fortunately, jawless fish, can breathe in either "air" or "water". Our senses are a very important part of us, but even more important is our vision.

Vision:

Our vision, as discussed in Chapter 9, comes from our eyes being able to capture light that goes to our brain for processing in order for us to create an image. Sounds impressive but how do we understand the history of our eyes itself? Well, in order to do so we must look at the relationship between the structure that makes our camera eye and those that make the different kinds of eyes. My favorite part of this chapter is one that I have observed personally while playing hide and seek. It happens when we go from light to darkness instantly. It causes our eyes to take a while to perceive objects. It's because basically our eyes need time to "recharge".

Ear:

In chapter 10, we learn about the ear which consists of the parts: inner, external, and middle. With our ears, depending on which species, we can hear either high or low frequencies sounds. What I found the most interesting this chapter was the inner ear-eye concept. It occurs when one drinks causing too much ethanol in their body. It leads our eyes to think we are spinning causing our eyes to twitch. It leads cops to bust these people for DUI. Not good to drink and drive. It's almost as if the eye and ear work together and affect one another.

The Meaning of it All:

This chapter mainly summarized everything mentioned in the book. I found the bozo sketch to be extremely creepy, yet funny. It lead for me to realize that we are all connected somehow whether it be we both have ears or eyes. What I have always wondered was why do we have hiccups. It doesn't make sense to me how it is triggered. Well it's caused by a spasm in the nerve initiating hiccups. Usually I would have to inhale a deep breath to end the agony. I have no idea why that works. When the longest hiccup lasting from 1922 to 1990 was mentioned, my mouth dropped. How can anyone survive with an everlasting hiccup?! That was just scary. All these discoveries, thanks to science, helps one learn about disease causing he or she to find a cure. I hope the person with hiccups found a cure! :)

-Mitasha Sujan