The Wonders of God's Creation - Zebrafish Edition

Using a newly developed microscope, scientists have been able to watch a zebrafish develop from a single cell to an embryo with a beating heart. (Source: Microscope shows first hours of developing embryo) The montage (L) shows the zebrafish digital embryo [left halves, colors encode movement directions of cells] and the microscopy data [right halves] at different time points in zebrafish development. (Research in Molecular Biology/handout/Reuters)

According to the article the team at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany led by Joachim Wittbrodt developed "a microscope powerful enough to track tens of thousands of cells at the same time without requiring the kind of energy that would otherwise destroy or damage an embryo."

Wittbrodt, now at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, explained how the new microscope works: "The microscope scans the embryo with what they call a sheet of light along many different directions, allowing a computer to then assemble a three-dimensional image that over time provides a complete view of the development."

He went on to say: "The power is in the size and the resolution while at the same time being extremely gentle on the embryo and extremely fast, which you need to follow things that are moving." The microscope can also be used to examine mice, chickens and frogs as they develop.

While the "pro-abortion" crowd may not like it, this just adds more evidence to back up the claim that life begins at fertilization.

Here is a video of the growth from 64 cells into development to 20,000 cells followed by 1 showing the development from ~5th somite stage: