Unlocking the black box of embryonic development

Little is known about the molecular and cellular events that occur during early embryonic development in primate species. Now, an internationally renowned team of scientists in China and the United States has created a method ...

Evolving a bigger brain with human DNA

The size of the human brain expanded dramatically during the course of evolution, imparting us with unique capabilities to use abstract language and do complex math. But how did the human brain get larger than that of our ...

Hitting reset to start a new embryo

New work by scientists in the U.S. and China shows how a fertilized egg cell, or zygote, hits "reset" so that the newly formed embryo can develop according to its own genetic program. The study was published July 17 in Nature.

Study finds why many IVF embryos fail to develop

In humans, a fertilized egg is no guarantee of reproductive success. Most embryos stop developing and perish within days of fertilization, usually because they have an abnormal number of chromosomes. Now, researchers at Columbia ...

Recreating the earliest stages of life

In their effort to understand the very earliest stages of life and how they can go wrong, scientists are confronted with ethical issues surrounding the use of human embryos. The use of animal embryos is also subject to restrictions ...

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