Featured Science and Innovations

Interactive Features
	The Neuron Experiment with Children's virtual neuron to see what conditions are needed to make it fire and what happens when you connect it to other neurons. This interactive feature also provides step-through animations illustrating how electrical currents move through the cell and how it passes signals on to other neurons.
	How cancer grows and spreads This animated Flash presentation illustrates the growth, progression and metastasis of carcinomas, the type of cancer that accounts for more than 90% of all cancer cases. Using the presentation's "roadmap," you'll be able to choose your own route as you travel from one possible cancer stage to the next.
	Virtual stem cell laboratory Create red blood cells, muscle cells, neurons, and other types of specialized cells from an initial "culture" of embryonic stem cells. By adding factors to the cells, you can coax the cells into differentiating into new cell types, and you can find out what scientists know about the cells, including any known or potential therapeutic applications.
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Movies and Images
	Transparent Zebrafish Zebrafish are genetically similar to humans and are good models for human biology and disease. Now, researchers have created a zebrafish that is transparent throughout its life. The fish allows scientists to view its internal organs and observe processes such as tumor metastasis. In this video clip, you can see the fish's heart beat.
	Image: Adult heart cell replicating Heart-muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes, were previously considered incapable of replicating in mammals after birth. Dr. Mark Keating and Dr. Felix Engel now show that an enzyme known as p38 MAP kinase suppresses cardiomyocyte replication and that inhibiting p38 enables these cells to proliferate.
	Animated Illustration: Lung development Organ development requires precise coordination and timing of cell growth in three-dimensional space to produce the correct anatomic form and shape. Dr. Ingber and colleagues have demonstrated that the process of budding and branching in the developing lung is driven by mechanical forces generated within individual cells.
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Looking Back
	A legacy of research and discovery Since its founding in 1869, scientists at Children's Hospital Boston have been at the forefront of pioneering efforts to investigate and develop new treatments for a host of diseases and conditions -- heart defects, polio, kidney failure, and cancer, to name a few. Here's a brief history that highlights some of this work...
	Polio vaccine 50th anniversary Children's Hospital Boston researchers Thomas Weller, Frederick Robbins and John Enders were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954 for their breakthrough discovery that led to the development of the polio vaccine. Find out about their work and the role Children's played in the fight against polio in this "Looking Back" feature.