As this month's cover image shows, cell division is one of the most visually stunning processes in the cell. It's also one of the most diverse, encompassing the mechanisms of DNA replication and checkpoint control, and the exquisite choreography behind mitosis, meiosis and cytokinesis. Ample reason, then, to highlight this exciting area in a special Focus issue.

The field wasn't always so diverse, of course, and the Timeline by Neidhard Paweletz on page 72 charts the origins of research into mitosis through the life and work of the German anatomist Walther Flemming. Much progress has since been made, and on page 21, Erich A. Nigg reviews how mitotic kinases ensure that, during cell division, each cell inherits a complete set of chromosomes and its share of the cytoplasm and organelles.

Cell division is not always fair and equal, however. The Highlight on page 3 and the Review by Juergen A. Knoblich (page 11) both address the mechanisms behind asymmetric cell division — more specifically, how and why protein determinants are distributed unequally between daughter cells during animal development.

Plant cells must divide too, and on page 33 Laurie G. Smith discusses how the position of a new plant cell wall is selected and established. Clive Lloyd and Patrick Hussey (page 40) then review the emerging family of plant microtubule-associated proteins, which form an integral part of the assemblies that control when and where the new wall is laid down.

To help you navigate this cell division issue, we've stamped all relevant features with the Focus logo above. For easy online access, these articles are grouped at a 'Focus on cell division' web page — http://www.nature.com/ncb/celldivision — where you'll also find content from (and links to) the January 2001 Focus on cell division in Nature Cell Biology.