Chapter 6: The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

This chapter once again reiterated how connected all organisms are.

I found the images provided in this chapter more helpful than those in the previous chapters. They cleared any doubts I had about the text and helped me better understand some concepts I didn't at first fully understand.

Of all of the experiments Shubin explained, I found Hilde Mangold's the most interesting. She cut a tiny piece of tissue from one embryo and transplanted it onto the embryo of an entirely different species. This piece of tissue, known as the Organizer, resulted in twins. First of all, I never would have thought that the mere manipulation of a small piece of tissue could result in the formation of an entire body plan. I also found the results surprising because Mangold used one species' Organizer for another.

Looking from the title, I was pretty sure Shubin would expalin how various organisms were similar through their body structures. However, I never expected him to compare something as basic as a sea anemone to something as complex as a human. I think Shubin put it well when he said, "All animals are the same but different. Like a cake recipe passed down from generation to generation [...] the recipe that builds our bodies has been passed down, and modified, for eons" (115).

- Aarti Kumar

Chapter 6: The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

This chapter kicked off to a promising start from the very first paragraph. The last few sentences on page 100 that describe the complications a blastocyst may face left me shocked because all of the rarer cases sounded extremely painful. I couldn't help but laugh at the "YOU ARE HERE" arrow, though. It reminded me of a mall map...
Hans Spemann and Hilde Mangold definitely piqued my interest because of what they were trying to discover. I would be surprised if someone hasn't asked themselves at least once "how does the embryo know to develop different parts of a body?" Their experiments really were incredible. Mainly because of the results, but still incredible nonetheless. I think it's interesting to be able to actually understand what makes us grow from something so small. I think the way Shubin presented the information was very helpful; he worked his way up from a simple idea and expanded it, which helped me connect everything together.
In regards to the last few pages: It's intriguing to know that a sea anemone has a hox gene as well, because they look and function differently than a human. I'm surprised somebody would be smart enough to even want to attempt to find similarities in us compared with a sea anemone or jellyfish...

7) Adventures in Bodybuilding

This chapter was about Shubin going to the gym everyday to workout to pump them muscles... to tell us about how single celled organisms became eventually us! I don't think he went to the gym or even went to workout either. Whatever. He does make clever titles though.

When I was first reading this, I was like... how does something so small become us...? He then started talking about bones and I thought he was going off on a tangent... like he completely forgot about that "glue" he keeps talking about. I didn't know where he was going with that idea until he writes about the formation of bones, with the collagen, cartilage, and the proteoglycan why you so complex.

Sounds fun to watch a blob mutate into a sponge in the experiment Wilson did. Cool, but I still didn't get how a cell came to have a body... until that experiment of the alga by Martin Borass and his peeps... a big oh x h²³ moment for me. But then he's like... wait. Something's missing. Whaaaaat. Great. There's more.

Guess I'm going to have to read more to make more scents of this (Did I win?).

Epic cell time.
More cells. (Inside joke)

- Keith Choison

the best-laid (body) plans

Throughout this chapter, Shubin's point that the mutations in flies hint facts about genes active in human embryos. So basically, even though flies seem useless, they help us know more about ourselves. This got me thinking how I always wonder why some insects exist. I think of them as useless and just an annoyance. However, Shubin made me think once again that they all contribute in humans getting to know the world they came from and live in today. The way he ended the chapter about the microbe makes me wonder and look forward to how he will connect it all together.

-Joyce Kim

Chapter 5: Getting Ahead

The begining of this chapter, was a bit crazy when Shubin talks about how he was holding half of the head in each hand, and tracing through the different paths of the nerves. It amazed me when he described the 2 nerves, the cranial and the trigeminal nerves, and compared it to sharks. As he talked about our heads, and the way the nerves work I never knew that our bone plates are separated until the age of two. I didnt even know what a bone plate was until i read this chapter!. It really interested me when Shubin tells us to shrink ourselves into the size of a pinhead and to travel inside the mouth of the of the develping embryo, we could see the indentations that shows each of the swelling. It was crazy to learn that there were 4 indentations. So after reading this chapter I realized that my nasalis muscle doesnt quite work, because i still cant flare my nose back and forth. This chapter really got me thinking about our brains, and our facial expressions. Im looking forward in reading chapter 6! :)

Keep up the good work... but lets stay on track!

Some of you have commented that we are going to run out of time... this is correct... your last post will sum up several chapters... but until then... lets stay on track. Keep posting one chapter a week and make sure that it is in before Midnight on Saturday.

If you feel that you do not have enough to read over the summer... I would also recommend the book to the right... I just completed it... and it presents a very interesting idea... every chapter makes you think!

On to chapter 6... best laid body plans.

Chapter 5: Getting Ahead

In this chapter, Shubin discuses the anatomy and  the connection between human and sharks. He mentions that the basic structure and blueprint of the human head is similar to those of a shark and worm. The four different arches that compose the significant blueprint of heads make it easier to understand the perplexing structure. Each arch is made up of cells that builds the different parts of our skull. The trigeminal and facial nerve control the muscles and carry sensory information from our face back to our brain. The muscles controlled by the trigeminal include those we use to chew as well as the muscles inside the ear. The different intricate nerves each plays a different role in our face, allowing us to smile, to frown, to raise and lower our eyebrows, to flare our nostrils, and so on. I was also shocked when I read that these headless worms are somehow related to the origin of humans. Humans and worms both share gill arches supported by an amphioxus. Never would I have thought we were similar to worms, which are far less complex.