Shelby is an assistant editor for The Scientist. She earned her PhD from West Virginia University in immunology and microbiology and completed an AAAS Mass Media fellowship. View full profile. Learn ...

The oviduct plays an indispensable role in mammalian reproduction by not only transporting gametes and embryos but also by providing a finely tuned microenvironment that supports fertilisation and ...

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

What do the earliest stages of a pregnancy look like? Embryonic development has been extensively studied, but most of our knowledge of the earliest stages of a growing baby come from stationary ...

The curved shape of a zebrafish egg causes unequal cell divisions, creating larger cells near the animal pole and smaller ...

The world is full of unusual unicellular organisms and microbes, many of which have not been discovered yet. In 2017, scientists identified a single-celled marine organism called Chromosphaera ...

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 ...

The mystery of early embryonic communication is starting to be unraveled thanks to a new stem cell-based model.

Under the microscope, MSK scientists studied how cells in a mouse embryo (green) move out and break away from their original tissue by contracting their surfaces (red). Studying this process, known as ...

Until a few hundred years ago, before scientific advances allowed researchers to peer inside the human body or extract cells to study them in the laboratory, I imagine that the mysteries of ...

Researchers have discovered a key transition in early embryonic development is facilitated by decreasing levels of a viral protein inserted into the DNA of our early animal ancestors. Researchers at ...