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. (: