Finally Done

8. Making Scents
Chapter 8 helped me to realize the importance of our sense of smell. It was particularly interesting to read baout how our smelling allows us to discriminate among several thousand odors. Once again, Shubin uses an analogy; this time, he compares smell to a chord in music. This comparison helped me to understand that an odor is the product of signals from lots of receptors keyed to odor molecules, much similar to a chord.

9. Vision
I liked how Shubin went into detail to explain how we are able to see and interpret something as an image. If visualizing one picture requires such a long process within, that alone shows how complex our body is. I also learned that light-sensing cells in our eyes make up about 70 percent of all sensory cells in our body. Through this fact, it is axiomatic that vision is that much important. When Shubin discussed opsins, I thought it was a clever idea to compare the light-gathering molecules that are necessary to see in color to printer inks that are needed in order to print in color. Furthermore, because of this chapter, I learned that not all bacteria are harmful; in fact, there are modified bits of ancient bacteria inside our retinas, all to help us see.

10. Ears
I found it amusing when Shubin admitted that the inner ear looks like a coiled snail shell because I was thinking the same thing after looking at the diagram showing the parts of the ear. It was interesting to find out what goes on internally that allows us to hear a sound. I did not know that there was even fluid inside our ears. And, of course, once again, Shubin had to draw something to prove our connection to other animals. I have always wondered why we needed a three-boned middle ear, but my question was answered when the text explained that the bones allow us to hear higher-frequency sounds than animals with a single bone. It was also fascinating to learn that our brains can be tricked like when we drink alcohol; the whole process of what is going on inside our bodies was fun to read about.

11. The Meaning of It All
The most interesting parts of this chapter were the bozo family tree and the discussion on hiccups. I know the point is the concept behind the family tree, but I have to admit that the bozo diagram itself was pretty funny to look at. The hiccups discussion captured my attention since I wanted to know why we hiccup and the whole process of "hiccuping". When the text read, "The longest uninterrupted hiccups in a person lasted from 1922 to 1990", I was really surprised and felt seriously bad for that person because hiccuping nonstop for that many years would have been torture.

Overall, this book had both interesting and dull parts. The way Shubin connected humans to all sorts of animals is hard to believe, but at the same time, something to think about. I don't think I will be able to look at any animal the same way again without questioning our common grounds.