Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
The creation of multiple stem-cell-derived models of mammalian embryogenesis is opening many new doors to study human development and brings a need for scientists to demonstrate responsible dialog over the associated ethical issues.
Research with human embryos and embryo models, this year’s Method of the Year, can be fraught. In contrast, digital embryos could be studied, even perturbed, in computational what-happens-when experiments.
Increasingly advanced in vitro stem-cell-derived human embryo models raise novel ethical questions and shed a light on long-standing questions regarding research on human embryos.
Recent methodological advances in measurements of geometry and forces in the early embryo and its models are enabling a deeper understanding of the complex interplay of genetics, mechanics and geometry during development.
The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a useful reference organism for studying photosynthesis, cilia and the cell cycle. Like many other algae, it exhibits daily rhythms in gene expression and behavior that are in sync with the rising and setting of the sun.
Nature Methods is proud to publish our very first Registered Report in this issue. Here, we reflect on what we have learned since introducing this article type.