For the first time, it is possible to actually watch the initial 24 hours of the life of an embryo at the cellular level.
Previously, scientists had only been able to piece together the first hours of a couple invertebrate organisms with only a few hundred cells such as a nematode worm -- work that resulted in a Nobel Prize. But doing the same for a vertebrate animal was essentially impossible.
"The digital embryo is like Google Earth for embryonic development," Jochen Wittbrodt of the University of Heidelberg said in a release. "It gives an overview of everything that happens in the first 24 hours and allows you to zoom in on all cellular and even subcellular details."
Already, the research has shown that the initial stages of heart development do not happen as scientists thought. (From Wired Science, Oct 9, 2008)
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