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Building Bodies: Five Big Questions

Illustration of two torsos with heads facing each other, showing their inner organs. The organs’ arrangements are mirror images of each other.
Living World

How do bodies map out left and right?

FIVE BIG QUESTIONS: Early in development, an embryo must “break symmetry” to position organs and other parts correctly.

Conceptual illustration showing embryos at different developmental stages with a background that looks like a circuit board.
Living World

Will we ever fully know how a body gets built?

FIVE BIG QUESTIONS: Research has yielded a parts list of the genes and cell types involved in development. Now it’s time for the computationally intensive task of figuring out how they interact to form a living being.

Blueprint-like illustration of a fly with its wings spread out
Living World

How do body parts grow to their right sizes?

FIVE BIG QUESTIONS: Some cells seem to know what to do. Others apparently take their cues from outside. But really, “We don’t get it.”

Drawing of four hourglasses of different sizes with various creatures inside them: an insect, mouse, human and elephant.
Living World

How does the embryo make all its parts at just the right moments?

FIVE BIG QUESTIONS: If events weren’t properly timed, pandemonium would ensue. Researchers are ferreting out the internal clocks that control developmental sequence and scheduling.

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