Chapters 8-11

Chapter 8: I found it quite fascinating how important our sense of smell is. I never expected it to be an important part of human survival. It's kind of funny, because i tend to get sick a lot, so i lose my sense of smell. How do i survive? Anyways, Shubin uses this interesting analogy that helped me and plenty of my peers understand: he compares smell to a chord in music. Seeing how i was in band for 6 years now, i completely understood what he meant. What surprised me was that fish and amphibians can smell. I may be slow, but does anyone really see fish smelling? Well i enjoyed this chapter as well.

Chapter 9: The eye has always been a tricky subject for me, not sight because i have 20/20 vision, but the anatomy and history of the eye. I've never taken a serious interest in the eye before, like when i had to dissect a cow eye in 7th grade, my lab partner and i decided to poke it until it squirted some disgusting smelling liquids. But this chapter gave me a new perspective; shall i say it "opened my eyes." Haha, yeah. I was so shocked to read that when Gehring swapped genes of a mouse and a fly, the mouse developed a fly eye. Let me just say this for this chapter and the next chapters: i really enjoyed reading this chapter. I've learned so much i didn't know before.

Chapter 10: I have a passion for music, so of course, this chapter helped me understand more to help me with my life. I think i learned about how your sense of balance is in your ear in 7th grade, but since it was a younger, not-so-specific class, it never really went much more into detail about the ear. Learning about how the ear also detects acceleration was shocking. I always thought that the ear was mainly for just hearing, partially for balance.

Chapter 11: This chapter helped me remember everything we've read in the previous chapters, since i forgot most of it already. But all in all, this book was actually a good read, something i would have never expected.

I would suggest this book to anyone who has a love for biology, such as myself. I feel ready to take on the challenge that is AP Bio.

-Shay Fajardo