Chapter 6:The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

What I find most interesting about this chapter is the way it mentioned the whole development of species and how they evolve from embryos into adults. Most embryos look the same as different species when first conceived, but as time passes, they start to take on their own destinctive shapes and characteristics while all going through the same stages of development. It was surprising to read how flies are a fundamental choice to study as to relate to the human's embryo plan. I also found that the type of mutations that flies go through were very unique to read about and nonetheless interesting:"a leg where an antenna should have been;an extra set of wings-or were missing body segments" (108).

On the last page of this chapter it again mentioned the Noggin with experiments of injections into embryos. What I found most fascinating was that if Noggin from one type of animal, such as a frog is injected into another, a sea anemone it would result with the same affect as a frog and a frog. Altogether this chapter made me realize that although only a fraction of our lives, the embryo stage is one of the most important processes we could go through in life. For in those few couple months our body plans our laid out for the rest of our lives.

Chapter 6

After reading chapter six, I learned that human embryonic development is closely related to other animals at a deeper level than mentioned in chapter 5. I was surprised to learn that just by moving a small patch of tissue from the developing egg, twins can be produced. It's funny how a microscopic change can cause an enormous change to the embryo(s).

I also thought it was odd yet exciting that we are closely related to a sea anemone. I understand similarities found between humans and other mammals like monkeys or pigs, but a sea anemone was utterly unexpected. However a sea anemone surprisingly has a front and back too so I guess that is closely related to us humans.

I found this chapter very interesting, and I hope that the next one will be just as well written.

Brenda Panuco

Chapter SIX

The best laid out plan. I never thought that this chapter would be about embryos and I have never thought that much about them until now. Embryos, I know realize, is what the entire body starts out from. The embryos are so important that with just a simple change of the embryo, the entire body structure can be changed. That is the most amazing part; the fact that everything can change about a person with just the tiniest changes to the embryo. Man, amazing. I have never realized that embryos can be so important. I know that people start out as embryos but I have never ever realized how significant it is. Embryos are the most important part for any animal, even insects. For example, just a single change to the egg can change the entire structure. At first, I thought that in this chapter, Shubin was going to talk more about the bones because of the best laid out plan, as in structures, but no, he started explaining about embryos and their significance. Embryos are very significant to humans, animals and insects because they all start out the same way, as embryos. That is what surprises me, the fact that all the creatures from insects to humans to elephants and bigger could all have started out the same way and differently. Surprising, amazing even.

Chapter 6

Never did I realize the importance of embryos until this chapter, and all at once I saw just how vital they are not only for their obvious purpose of developing into the human beings we know today, but by also allowing us to see exactly how interelated and connected most animals are to human beings in the most basic stages of life. Phew that was one long sentence, it sounded like a thesis. In Chapter Six, Shubin explained how the "ball of cells" that makes us up, which is a blastocyt, can implant itself incorrectly and form a very dangerous "ectopic implantation". Through Von Baer, we saw how all animals share a fundamental pattern of life, yet still vary from species to species making us unique in our own special ways. And not special in a bad way either. The rest of the chapter kind of flew by in a blur for me, ending with the absurd yet completely plausible comparison of a sea anenome to a human, and with that I bid you good night.
Keith Renner

Chapter 6: The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

When the chapter started out with the discussion of comparing primitive animals such as jellyfish to human structures, I did not think Shubin would make a bridge or transition with all of the discussions of embryos, tissues, hox genes to his final point. Moreover, with all the talks about embryos and DNA from previous chapter, I was concerned on how to digest more information of the same subjects without confusion. However, unlike from last chapter, Shubin started off easily with common knowledge of steps to the development of animals that would be taught in a biology class. As I read through the pages, I was shocked how origins of embryos consisted of same materials such as three tissues. Then, Shubin explained how germ layers such as mesoderm and ectoderm play significant roles in forming organs, bones, and etc. As the subject got deeper, he demonstrated how genes such as Noggin, Organizer, and BMP-4 function accordingly to build different types of bodies. With all these information condensed, the chapter ends with how traits found among unlikely compared animals are from same origins. For example, although Shubin described comparing the primitive creatures to human was psychiatric to strengthen the degree of the topic, he made the topic look easy through specific examples and analysis to make the comparisons pragmatic.

The Best-Laid (Body) Plans (Ch.6)

After reading only six chapters of Shubin's book, I have learned so much about how the development of humans share similarities with that of other living organisms. Despite how distinctly different we, humans, are from other species such as jellyfish, we strangely share identical body plans. I found it quite interesting, and at the same time quite strange how similar embryos can turn out to take forms so differently.
I also found it quite hard to believe how only three simple layers have the ability to shape and form the complex inner and outer structures of humans. That just proves how unbelievably strange the stages from contraception to birth is. Furthermore, after reading about several labs that were executed by others, I was amazed to discover how far we as humans have come in understanding the growth of living organisms.

Chapter Six: The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

Coming into this chapter, I didn't know what to expect; but after a few short paragraphs I realized it was chapter 5 with a lot more details. And that means more embryos. Through Shubin and this book, I realize how significant and instrumental those tiny sacs of life really are the key to the questions we often find ourselves asking; so for that we have to go back to the beginning. We really are no different from a sea anenome in the most basic structure, and it is the growth from that small embryonic ball that makes us who we are. Also, it makes me look at abortion in a whole new life; as it seems a lot less humane to rip out the miracle that is a human fetus from the world. The whole part about the Hox genes I thought to be very interesting, as it showed just how our body sized up to me what it is today. All in all, I thought this was a very solid continuation of Chapter 5, thought variety would be very much appreciated.
-Cameron Chear