A new "atlas" of early embryonic development in mammals suggests that the process is highly chaotic — but there is some method to the madness. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn ...

A stretch of viral DNA in the mouse genome gives cells in early-stage embryos the potential to become almost any cell type in ...

Cell division is an essential process for all life on earth, yet the exact mechanisms by which cells divide during early ...

In the earliest hours after fertilization, an embryo takes its first steps toward becoming a living organism by shedding maternal control and activating its own genetic program. This critical process, ...

Biologists have provided new insights on a longstanding puzzle in biology: How complex organisms arise from a single fertilized cell. Producing a new 'gene atlas' with 4-D imaging, the researchers ...

As the climate changes, scientists are concerned about how well plants and animals will adapt to rapid warming. A new ...

Over half of our genomes consists of thousands of remnants of ancient viral DNA, known as transposable elements, which are widespread across the tree of life. Once dismissed as the "dark side" of the ...

An international team of scientists led from Sweden's Karolinska Institutet has for the first time mapped all the genes that are activated in the first few days of a fertilized human egg. The study, ...