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.