As the next millennium dawns, developmental biology, the study of the processes that give rise to cellular diversity and order within an organism and to the continuation from one generation to the next, has reached a most exciting stage as an experimental science. In particular, in the last two decades, the application of analytical and technical know-hows generated from the “molecular biology revolution” have critically advanced our understanding of development in a mechanistic way. There is every reason to believe that the study of development will be one of the most promising areas of the life sciences in the next millennium.
