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 ...

6 core challenges that researchers must consider as the race to create models that are ever closer to real human embryos heats up.

Scientists have discovered a kind of “pause button” in early human development. This biological mechanism has long been known in other mammals, but its discovery in humans could aid IVF procedures.

A lot happens in the first month of human embryo development as a single cell morphs into multitudes. Yet despite its significance, this period is basically a “black box” to researchers, says stem ...

A proposed international legal and ethical definition could address current challenges, with implications for improving IVF success rates. The ethical and legal challenges posed by embryology research ...

Descriptions of the embryo go back at least to the time of Aristotle, but it has only been since the late 19 th century and early 20 th century that advances in experimental approaches allowed ...