Chapter 7

First off, the idea of making a creature transparent with glycerin and dying different parts with certain colors is quite fascinating, watching one of the most complicated developments on the Earth taking place at the microscopic level, while also bringing up a slight idea pointing to the cruelty of such acts, manipulating these animals in sadistic ways, but, as long as its in the name of science, all is well. Just like Shubin, we can all share the feeling of being awestruck at such an idea, let alone actually seeing this unfold.

The metaphor of how an animal cells build itself brings into perspective the magnitude of insanity that happens during this process, bricks helping to build the house with no architect.

The explanation of the way cancer forms from the body itself is quite insightful; we hear about the disease cancer over and over, but not many of us know what this disease exactly is. Zit's basically a glitch in our body, a error in the programming code.

The year comparison to the lifetime of Earth, is hard to fathom considering humans exist for such a fraction of the Earth's lifetime, yet we walk with an ego and mastery as if we were eternally existing creatures.

The analysis of why bodies came together is also puzzling. Why did single cell organisms make the jump? Its interesting to note how when predators find new ways, prey also evolves, an idea that passes most of us. Necessity is the means of invention. This would link to Darwin's idea of survival of the fittest, which would make sense as to why organisms went from single celled to bodies.

-- Abdel Albakri

Chapter 7-Adventures in Body Building

The beginning was a great hook. He talked about "watching an animal being built"(116). That's crazy! and its building itself! "Imagine a house coming together spontaneously from all the informatin contained in the bricks: that is how animal bodies are made"(117). That is so cool! How everything just comes together, knowing what they have to do. Everything is synchronized, and if this balance is disturbed it can kill you. How sad. Cells have to be able to make new things, to communicate, and to stick together.

Shubin's analogies are very helpful. "January 1 being the origin of the earth and midnight on December 31 being the present" (119). It was surprising to see that the first animal with a head didn't appear until October. It seems so recent(?!). So the earth was just bodyless creatues for almost the whole year until the last 3 months.

"When earth's oxygen increased, bodies appeared everywhere. Life would never be the same" (138). That is so amazing! Bodies require so many things! Althought this chapter was very long, I still enjoyed it! :)

Chapter SEVEN.

Shubin starts the chapter by talking about how an animal is built and goes into the when, how and why questions about our bodies. He talks about cells, which make up our bodies. Our bodies need to communicate with each other, be able to make new things. He tells us that a batch of cells that doesn’t work with each other is a cancerous tumor. “Cancers break the rules that allow cells to cooperate with one another” (118). They are bullies that kill their larger community which is our body.

When Shubin starts talking about how long humans have been on earth, even though I already knew that we haven’t been here for long I was still amazed. “…with January 1 being the origin of the earth and midnight on December 31 being the present…The first human appears on December 31” (119-120). Reading that made me feel so small and just showed how long we have come from the first humans, which to me is a LONG time, but in reality it’s like a couple hours in the history of the earth.

I liked learning about the collagen, cartilage proteoglycan. At first I was confused, but with Shubin’s comparison of a proteoglycan as a giant piece of Jell-O, and he says “Take this piece of gelatin, wrap collagen ropes in and around it, and you end up with a substance that is both pliant and somewhat resistant to tension. This, essentially, is cartilage. A perfect pad for our joints” (126-127). And as Ashima said when Shubin related collagen to a tug-a-war I would be able to remember it more.

I always wondered how we could know how long ago something happened, such as for how long were oxygen were low. We know by the chemistry of rocks, by the telltale signature.

Thanks to oxygen levels increasing bodies appeared.

ALSO, thanks to cells we have bones and thanks to bones we have a skeleton and without a skeleton we’d be goo.

- Nikita Patel

Chapter 7

It was really amazing to know that Shubin used dye to observe the development of the bones, cartilage, and stuff. I did not even know this process existed... I found the explanation of the blob fascinating and it forms into a sponge. I hope Shubin will explain things in the next chapter as well as he did in this chapter.

Chapter 7!

Chapter 7 was sort of long but Shubin explained the idea well. In the beginning he talks about how animal bodies are made. Shubin says " Imagine a house coming together spontaneously from all the information contained in the bricks: that is how animal bodies are made(117)." I love this quote, Shubin gives amazing examples. It seems so magical. I mean how cool!

I also learned something new, Shubin says " Until something out of the ordinary happens, like, for instance, we get a wart. The cells inside of the wart aren't following the rules...(118)" I knew cells didn't follow the rules for cancer but I didn't know that it pertains to other blemishes. It would be cool to observe cells and how they form or go against the "LAW".

Shubin says "In fact, much of the difference between a leg bone and an eye rests in the ways the cells and materials are arranged deep inside(123)". Lol groossss!! This is another cool thing I learned.. The eye, something so complex and different is compared to our leg bone...I never imagined something SO DIFFERENT relating. It shows me that even the two most opposite things can match. No wonder we can relate to a fish.. also something I cant imagine but hey Shubins gonna make it happen...

I also learned about loose and tight cells. I compared it to my elbow, you know the part we can stretch..it has loose cells. Lol.. yeah I made an inference..
We are all unique because we have different bone structures although some of our cells may be the same. WE are ALL special :)

I learned neww voacb!!! Collagen! LOL :) The medical dictionary is pretty interesting. haha. Collagen is pretty cool and Shubin related it to tug-a-war which is going to make me rmr it more. It is also cool how cells communicate!!!!..
YAY is FOR OXYGENNNN!!!!
-ashima gore

Chapter 7

Chapter 7
This chapter was way better than the last chapter because chapter 7 explained me how our body was formed from a little cell. Shubin explained how cell and body combined together to form the body and how we started as a little cell. He was really good at giving me a picture of how we are formed.

chapter 7

This chapter shows us how all tissues and organs in our body build and work together and the connections we relate and derive from single celled organisms. Shubin explains how a discovery of fossils and their time spans shows us how we emerge from bacteria, algae and other single celled organisms. He also shows us how all the differences in our body from our eyes to our limbs is the arrangement of the many cells. Shubin always brings us to thank many things that we are so accustomed to we overlook like teeth or our skeleton. Shubin tells us that without our skeleton we would be a mass of goo. However with skeletons strength and structure we are able to eat, breathe and play. I found it interesting when Shubin goes on to explain how exactly we are related to a blob or single cell organisms. He also shows us how we are like sponges in the way we hold cells together. At the end of the chapter he brings up the fasnicating aspect of time. He explains how bodies came at the time that they did with aspects of survival on earth. This chapter was really interesting.