What determines whether a limb grows into an arm or a leg? Research into insect development suggests that a relatively small number of “master genes” control human development, too
THE MYTH that babies are found under gooseberry bushes was a convenient way for Victorian parents to avoid the embarrassing subject of the facts of life. But babies, like most other living things, are not created whole: they grow from a single fertilised egg cell, and continue to grow from birth to adulthood.
This process is controlled by genes. Most genes carry information that directs cells to make proteins. In most…
