This year's Nobel prize for physiology or medicine is being awarded to three scientists who pioneered fundamental research into the genetics of embryology. They uncovered the important genes controlling the complex development of the single celled, fertilised egg to a multicellular organism. As a result they furthered the understanding of the basic developmental malfunctions leading to spontaneous abortions and congenital defects, said the Nobel assembly of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm last week.

Edward B Lewis, who at 77 is now a professor emeritus at the California Institute of Technology, was the original pioneer in the field, having started his study of the embryonic development of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, in 1946. He published …

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