There, far from sitting on some shelf gathering dust, the collection is very much in use and in demand. It forms the centerpiece of the museum's new Human Developmental Anatomy Center, and it is used by hundreds of researchers every year. Adrianne Noe and her colleagues have generated an online database system for easy access to some 660 embryos in the collection. These embryos represent the full range of embryonic growth from single cells through eight weeks. A long-term goal is to image all sections of the embryos and to offer researchers the ability to search for the section images they require using such standards as age, stage of development, and structure.

Clearly, in its new, digitized form, the Human Embryo Collection continues to serve science-and to tell us marvelous things about ourselves unborn.

Fabiola Muller and Rohan O'Rahilly with one of Osbourne Heard's reconstructions of the embryonic brain. Right: Adrianne Noe, Director, National Museum of Health and Medicine.