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Firstly, I put my blog post in the wrong spot last night apparently... it's under "Recent Blog Posts" whoooops! Now it's in the right place.

I found Chapters 1-4 to be very interesting. I'm going to be completely honest: Before I read the material, the thought of reading 80-some pages about evolution made me sick, as I am a Spanish major taking this class for a Div. II requirement & by spark of interest. I'm glad I read now because I learned some new things that 1) I have always wondered about but never cared or remembered to research & 2) just never occurred to me. For example, I never knew that the young Earth initially consisted of methane, molecular hydrogen, ammonia, and water vapor, and finally, oxygen came in increasing quantities with the rise of cyanobacteria. I guess I just foolishly assumed that oxygen "came with the package" so to speak. I also appreciated how in Ch. 3, the author describes the domino effects of the first eukaryotes: they made more complex organisms (plants, animals, etc.) possible, and these multicellular organisms then achieved nucleated cells, sexual reproduction, & meiosis. I was surprised how detailed the reading was -- especially when the author writes about the origins of mitochondria & chloroplasts (very interesting). I did not, however, quite comprehend all of the aspects addressed in regards to evolutionary biology. I understand the fundamentals of population thinking, essentialism and finalism, but the sub-concept of transmutationism is a bit confusing.