Observing time with the Hubble Space Telescope represents an invaluable resource to the astronomical community. In the early 1980s, NASA took the bold step of charging a community-based entity -the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) -with implementing, managing and maintaining a process for selecting proposals and awarding observing time. This approach has proved highly successful over t...

Somites form along the embryonic axis by sequential segmentation from the presomitic mesoderm (PSM) and differentiate into the segmented vertebral column as well as other unsegmented tissues. Somites are thought to form via the intersection of two activities known as the clock and the wavefront. Previous work has suggested that fibroblast growth factor (FGF) activity may be the wavefront signal...

The development of calvarial bones is tightly co-ordinated with the growth of the brain and needs harmonious interactions between different tissues within the calvarial sutures. Premature fusion of cranial sutures, known as craniosynostosis, presumably involves disturbance of these interactions. Mutations in the homeobox gene Msx2 as well as the FGF receptors cause human craniosynostosis syndro...