In response to the spread of COVID-19 in early 2020, schools across the UK moved to virtual teaching arrangements for the majority of their learners. Some localized school closures occurred in England in February 2020, with a national lockdown following in March 2020. Although relaxed in June 2020, concerns about rising cases of the virus led to a second period of enforced school closure across the UK in January 2021. With no sign of the pandemic abating, we wanted to gain insights into teachers’ experiences at this unique time. We used a solicited diary method with teachers over a 4-month period to reflect on workload and wellbeing issues related to their changing teaching practices. The diaries were supplemented by a series of teacher interviews. In this paper, we carry out a critical reflection of diary use. We observe how diaries provide a structure for eliciting ideas in an ordered way, and which then become a resource for a teacher’s professional reflection. This process also appears to strengthen some of the social connections that were compromised during the social distancing periods of the pandemic, and which has benefits for teachers’ wellbeing.

In this paper we consider the issue of formality in learning. Both formal and informal learning appear to be well-defined in educational discourse, in contrast with non-formal learning which is less clearly articulated. This lack of clarity around non-formal learning has consequences for its recognition by teachers and learners. To contribute to the conceptualisation of non-formal learning we carried out a literature review that helped us to identify dimensions of learning formality. This framework allowed us to discriminate the ways in which non-formal learning differed or matched with aspects of formal or informal learning. It also suggested to us that formality is fluid, and that learning with different formalities might co-exist in some learning environments. We then used our framework to develop tools for capturing evidence of non-formal learning. We describe these tools and how we used them in a pilot study to explore the features of non-formal learning in a formal, Year 12 classroom learning context in an English school. We use our pilot study outcomes to reflect on the utility of our data gathering methods. We also use the study outcomes to update our non-formal learning framework.

The British Government appointed a departmental committee to review anti-homosexuality laws in 1954 following a marked increase in the number of arrests for homosexuality after World War II. The committee invited the British Medical Association (BMA) and other institutions to provide scientific and medical evidence relating to homosexuality. In 1954, the BMA established the Committee on Homosexuality and Prostitution to present its view on how the law impacted upon homosexuals and society. This paper analyses the BMA's attitudes to homosexuality by examining its submission to the Departmental Committee. Whilst the BMA supported implicitly the decriminalization of certain homosexual acts, it remained strongly opposed to homosexuality from a moral perspective and insisted that it was an illness. It is concluded that the BMA's submission was driven primarily by a desire to control the "unnatural deviant" behavior of homosexuals and to protect society from that behavior rather than to protect homosexuals.

BackgroundInternationally, research comparing education systems across countries and jurisdictions is valuable and can elicit nuanced insights into how particular systems operate. This paper's interest lies in considering the scope and content of research comparing education systems across the four UK nations (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales).PurposeThis study sought to determine the coverage of UK cross-national comparative education research ('home international' research) between 2000 and 2022. We chose this time period as 1999 marks the devolution of education policy to each UK nation. We aimed to investigate what educational issues had been discussed in the literature and identify any gaps in the content covered by the research.MethodAn exploratory, high-level review of 'home international' education research was conducted, based on the review of abstracts. We searched several research databases using a variety of keyword combinations to identify relevant literature published since 2000. Our search identified 53 studies that met our selection criteria. Using a meta-synthesis approach, we coded the content of each abstract to build a picture of the range and thematic coverage of research involving comparisons between at least two of the four UK nations.FindingsThe analysis of abstracts identified that, over the last two decades, UK 'home international' research has tended to include comparisons of all four nations, coverage of multiple educational phases and a focus on national education policy reviews. Furthermore, we pinpointed a number of gaps in coverage that might not have been anticipated (e.g. relatively little cross-national research focusing on assessment).ConclusionThis high-level review uncovers the landscape of recent 'home international' research, allowing us to view issues that are driving the cross-national research agenda in the UK and recognise implications relevant to education systems that may resonate with jurisdictions beyond these four UK nations.

In early 2021, schools in England went into a second period of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to look at how the pandemic influenced teachers' working experiences. In particular, our focus of interest was on changes to teachers' pedagogic, curricular and assessment practices, and how these changes impacted on their workload and wellbeing. We involved 15 teachers from a spread of regions, localities, school types and sizes across England. The teachers were working with students in Year 11 and/or 13 across a range of subject areas that would be particularly prone to the effects of any moves towards remote learning or disruption to examined assessment. To capture the teachers' working experiences we used a mixed methods approach. This approach involved teachers recording their experiences in a series of solicited diaries over a 4-month period in early 2021. We complemented the insights gleaned from the teachers' diaries with data from teacher interviews and surveys. This approach allowed us to link teachers' experiences during the pandemic to their workload and their perceptions of wellbeing. Our analyses suggest that there were some features of workload that negatively affected teacher wellbeing during the pandemic period, particularly around assessment-related tasks. We also found that some of the social dimensions of teachers' work positively contributed to their wellbeing, particularly where teachers' work involved interactions with students and with colleagues.

Anne M c Laren DBE was born into a privileged family, which affected her future in two distinct ways. Her cut-glass accent and social confidence were advantageous reminders of this early privilege, but her unrelenting rejection of it was evident in her left-wing egalitarian political and social views and actions. Anne was among the pioneers of research into mammalian development—her experiments on embryonic and fetal development in mice led indirectly to ‘test tube’ babies and contributed to our understanding of the relative roles of soma and germ cells in generating the two sexes. However, it is not only her science for which she will be remembered; her social, educational, ethical and political activities in the cause of science were paramount. She was an articulate, logical and extraordinarily confident speaker, always unrelentingly focused and thoroughly prepared. These qualities made her a formidable member of the Warnock Committee of enquiry, which generated the internationally influential guidelines on how human-assisted reproduction should be regulated. She served for 10 years with distinction on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the UK regulatory body that resulted from the Warnock enquiry. She was a founder member, and president, of the Association of Women in Science and Engineering. Her interests extended beyond human welfare to that of animals, and she became involved with conservation and biodiversity preservation programmes internationally. She was elected Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, the first woman to hold this office in its 332 years.

There is a pressing need to develop processes to facilitate the organization of education responses in time-pressured emergency situations. As part of a joint Learning Passport (LP) partnership project with UNICEF, researchers along with curriculum and subject specialists at the University of Cambridge, UK, developed a curriculum framework that could be used as a resource for coordinating the actions of education specialists and practitioners in Education in Emergencies (EiE) situations. This article outlines the curriculum framework design approach they developed for the Maths and Science components of the LP framework. The article outlines a three-stage curriculum framework development model, which involves consideration of context, leading to descriptor generation, and attending to cohesion building elements.

In this paper we outline the use of a concept mapping narrative method to elicit the complex and interconnected conceptualisations of specialized knowledge (assessment literacy) for a specific cohort of participants (teacher-examiners). In particular, we are interested in exploring how relational concept mapping and narrative interviews can be used as a tool for gathering participant's perspectives through encouraging them to organize and represent their ideas on a topic. In our analysis we identify two research challenges that we explore through the use of the methodology: (1) the codification challenge of how to gain information that participants may not find easy to access or express; and (2) the quality challenge of how to capture nuanced information. Our observations suggest that participants employ content and structural features in their maps to move from conceptual simplicity to complexity, to construct a cohesive narrative, and to maintain a self-regulated focus in that construction process.

In this paper we explore collaboration in the context of the educational services industry (ESI). We look to literature from the communication field to consider ethical strategies and methods for ensuring the validity of the outcomes of collaborative working. Drawing on Collaborative Product Development and conversation theory we devise four principles that can guide the collaborative process within an education-based partnership project. We then use a case study to consider how these principles supported the outcomes of a cross-national partnership project. Finally, we draw on these principles to consider the lessons for project management in education public private partnerships.

Research shows that endothelin (ET)-traps are a potential therapy for diabetes. Given that type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an autoimmune disorder, ET-traps could also have an efficacious, therapeutic effect on other autoimmune diseases associated with pathologically elevated ET-1. Here, we describe those different autoimmune diseases that might benefit from a tool such as ET-traps, which potently sequester these elevated levels of ET-1. We also discuss the current use of ET receptor (ETR) antagonists and the associated adverse effects, and how ET-traps are associated with no toxicity and potentially offer a superior alternative. ET-traps could be used against different autoimmune diseases and, therefore, are a novel therapeutic tool for such conditions.

We consider the scientific evidence that research on in-vitro development of embryos beyond 14 days is necessary. We then examine potential new developments in the use of stem cells to make embryoids or synthetic human entities with embryo-like features, and consider whether they also require legal control. Next, we consider the arguments advanced against extending the 14-day period during which research on human embryos is currently permitted, and find none of them to be convincing. We end by proposing a new objective limit that could serve as a mechanism for regulating the use of embryos for research in vitro.

The significance of cell polarity in early mouse development is discussed in relation to four stages of embryogenesis. (1) Prior to compaction there is evidence of heterogeneity among cells that may reflect differential inheritance from a polarized distribution of molecules at earlier stages. (2) At the 8-cell stage there is evidence of a substantial cell cortex reorganization to yield a polar phenotype for each cell that characteristically is stable through the subsequent two divisions, thereby generating from each 8-cell one of two patterns of 16-cell phenotypes depending on the plane of division in relation to the axis of polarity: polar–nonpolar cells or polar–polar cells. The two cell types thus formed then tend to occupy different positions within the compacted conceptus, apolar cells being totally enclosed by polar cells. (3) At the blastocyst stage, the hypoblast cells polarize and come to lie on the on the epiblast after a process of precursor cell sorting. (4) Finally, cells within the epiblast form a polarized monolayer during proamniotic cavity formation. The molecular basis of each of these four polarization events is discussed.

In educational contexts, questioning performs a number of functions. These include facilitating learning in the classroom and the recognition of achievement through examinations and other assessments. Good quality questions are important to ensuring that these functions are achieved. This research focused on educational exams and used views from question writers to explore conceptualisations of question quality and features thought to affect question quality. Seven examination question writers from four subjects were shown some example exam questions. Participants were asked to comment on the quality of the question, reflect on performance data, rate question quality and comment more generally on how they define quality in question writing. Three conceptualisations of question quality emerged, two relating to aspects of validity and one relating to pedagogical concerns. Participants varied in which definition dominated their views. Discussions also identified question features thought to affect quality. These are similar to features previously identified as affecting difficulty and fairness by studies analysing student performance.

2018 was another successful year for RBMO. As part of the continuing development of the journal, we have strengthened the team of editors to include Chris Barratt, Felice Petraglia and René Eijkemans, who join Mina Alikani, Richard Anderson, Juan Garcia Velasco and Martin Johnson, allowing the Chief Editor, Bart Fauser, more time to focus on strategic considerations. Profiles of the new editors will appear in a subsequent issue. After considerable changes to the structure of the Editorial Panel in 2016, there have been fewer recent changes, but most notably we thank a long-standing member of the Editorial Panel, Nils Lambalk, for all of his hard work over the many years of his involvement with the journal, most recently as a Section Editor for the section ‘Periconception, pregnancy, children outcomes’. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with him as a member of the Emeritus Editorial Board and wish him well as newly appointed Editor-in-Chief of Human Reproduction. We also welcome Virginia Bolton, previously a member of the Editorial Board, as an additional Section Editor for clinical embryology. A major change in 2018 was the adoption of a new format and cover design, beginning with the September issue, which we hope you all appreciate. We felt that the format of the journal no longer reflected our aspirations for it: innovative and on the forefront of new developments in reproduction. We considered many options, and we are all extremely happy with the end result. It is different, creative, modern and eye-catching. In particular, we are pleased to have commissioned original artwork for our covers that will feature over the years to come. We have also modified the name of our journal from RBMOnline to RBMO, with a consequent new logo. Being ‘online’ was really something new in 2000 when the journal was launched, but this – of course – is no longer a distinctive feature. We hope that you, our esteemed readers, will like the new look of the journal as much as we do. The past year also saw the move of the editorial office from its original home at Duck End Farm in Dry Drayton, where our founding editor, Bob Edwards, lived with his family and from where he launched the journal some 18 years ago, to Bourn Hall, where he established the first-ever IVF clinic with Patrick Steptoe and Jean Purdy. This move continues to emphasize the link with our founding editor and with IVF itself. Our official affiliation with the World Congress on Controversies in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Infertility (COGI), inaugurated in 2017, was again celebrated with a session at the 26th Congress in London in November dedicated to showcasing some of the best work published in RBMO. In addition a special lecture marking the 40th anniversary of the birth of Louise Brown, sponsored by the Edwards and Steptoe Research Trust, was given by Katie Dow who presented a talk entitled The birth of the first ‘test tube baby’ in the British press based on her paper published in RBMO’s companion journal RBMS (https://www.rbmsociety.com/article/S2405-6618(17)30019-9/pdf). RBMO marked the anniversary by publishing a special online-only collection of selected key historical papers from RBMO and RBMS relating to the events leading up to the birth of Louise Brown, including the paper by Katie Dow (available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/reproductive-biomedicine-online/special-issue/10J76S2B3MX). We are delighted to announce that the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society and the Academy of Clinical Embryologists, India have become additional affiliated societies. We look forward to working with them. The Robert G Edwards Prize Paper Award, now entering its ninth year, is an established and welcome element in the range of activities of our journal. A long-list of 9 papers published in 2017 was reduced to a short-list of 5 by our section editors. Any one of these would have been a worthy recipient of the award, but the truly outstanding article chosen by our senior editorial panel to receive the award was by Chloë De Roo and co-workers entitled Ovarian tissue cryopreservation in female-to-male transgender people: insights into ovarian histology and physiology after prolonged androgen treatment’ https://www.rbmojournal.com/article/S1472-6483(17)30140-2/pdf. Remarks from section editors about this paper included: ‘This study demonstrates a normal cortical follicle distribution in trans men (female-to-male) after more than a year’s treatment with testosterone. This, apart from providing information about the maintenance of the reproductive potential in these individuals, also gives background information for the performance of studies on ovarian physiology.’, ‘This was an important publication providing guidance in an emerging area of human fertility preservation’, ‘Androgen supplementation is increasingly used. The paper gives us an insight in the pathophysiology of follicular recruitment under androgen treatment.’, ‘… an important publication providing guidance in an emerging area of human fertility preservation.’, and ‘… one top candidate due to basic descriptive info it provides and the contemporary nature of the question.’ We congratulate the winning and short-listed authors for their excellent contributions to our journal! Work will now start to select the best paper from those published in 2018. Further information about the selection process and past winners can be found on the RBMO website (www.rbmojournal.com). Choice of a winning paper becomes harder each year as the submission rate of high-quality papers reported last year has continued this year, reaching 708 by the end of October in 2018 compared with 700 for the same period in 2017. This is inevitably accompanied by a high rejection rate – currently running at around 80% – the latter posing a difficulty for us as we strive to help authors to improve the quality of content and presentation via constructive reviewing, suggestions for revision and robust adjudication. To help us at the outset of this task we increasingly recommend to authors whose native language is not English that they use the Elsevier English Language Editing Service, available at www.webshop.elsevier.com. With more papers comes the need for more reviewers, particularly those who can support our efforts to reduce the time from submission to publication. Encouraging potential reviewers to accept invitations to review, and to provide comments in a timely fashion, is an important part of the publication process (Fauser, 2016Fauser BCJM. What makesRBM Online special? The Chief Editor’s point of view.Reprod. Biomed. Online. 2016; 33: 535-536Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (7) Google Scholar). The Elsevier Reviewer Recognition platform, launched for RBMO at the end of 2015, contributes to this effort by offering reviewers the opportunity to compile a formal record of reviewing activity for both Elsevier and non-Elsevier journals and to create a public review profile. More information is provided at www.reviewerrecognition.elsevier.com. An issue of concern for both the editors and the authors has been the delay between acceptance of a paper and its appearance online, due to the process of careful checking of each paper before it is made available to readers – something that we and indeed many of our authors consider a very responsible exercise. It is not a practice that we intend to change for the final published version of papers, but we have taken the decision to publish papers online immediately following acceptance, before these checks take place, so as to make papers available at the earliest opportunity in this fast-moving field. We are confident that this, together with measures to increase the throughput of papers, will ensure timely publication of submissions in the future. Notwithstanding the increase in submissions, readers may have noticed that we are publishing fewer papers from the study of social and cultural implications of new reproductive technologies. Papers in this burgeoning field are now largely finding a home in our companion journal, RBMS (Reproductive BioMedicine and Society Online), an online-only, open-access publication (www.rbms.com) launched in June 2015 (Franklin and Johnson, 2015Franklin S. Johnson M. Reproductive BioMedicine and Society Online launches at ESHRE.Reprod. Biomed. Online. 2015; 30: 561-562Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar) and now in its seventh volume. It is the policy of both journals that the preferred journal for publishing such papers will continue to be RBMS, as RBMS gains in stature and also gains recognition by relevant ranking agencies. Our editorial panels constitute a veritable Who’s Who of assisted reproduction! They help us with advice and refereeing, and to all of them we express our thanks for their commitment to RBMO. Our reviewers and authors are our life-blood and we thank all the past year’s reviewers by name in this issue. Thanks also to the staff at Elsevier, led by Greyling Peoples, for their continuing commitment to the efficient production and promotion of the journal. Finally, the editors would like to express their appreciation to Kamal Ahuja and the Board of Reproductive Healthcare Ltd for their continuing moral and financial support for the journal, and to Eddie Kuan and David Hoskins in particular. And last, but certainly not least, the editorial office staff remains dedicated to the production of our first-rate journals. Our thanks go to the team in the Editorial Office, namely Caroline Blackwell, Catherine Field and Maria Murphy. We would also like to thank Esther Pickard, who has provided excellent support to Caroline during 2018. Our thanks also to Kimberley Byron-Dodd, Digital Communications Officer for her input throughout 2017 and 2018. At the cusp of a new year, we look forward to further growth and development for RBMO and RBMS in the months ahead, and we wish a productive and exciting 2019 to all our contributors, editors, reviewers and, of course, our readers!

Background: The development of a set of questions is a central element of examination development, with the validity of an examination resting to a large extent on the quality of the questions that it comprises. This paper reports on the methods and findings of a project that explores how educational examination question writers engage in the practice of question setting. Although the practice of examination question writing is ubiquitous, limited research has been carried out on how writers actually draft individual examination questions when writing complete examination papers. Purpose: The main aim of this study was to understand more deeply the process of examination question writing. Sample: The study involved 12 experienced educational examination question writers. Design and methods: The first data collection phase involved observing writers whilst they wrote the first draft of a question paper (using a 'think aloud' process). Following the observation, the writers took part in an hour-long interview. This led to the construction of a model of question writing. Phase 2 of the data collection process involved validating the proposed question writing model with six additional question writers by means of telephone interviews. Analysis and findings: A model was developed that outlined the key stages of writing that all of the writers moved through in the completion of their question writing task. The question writing model situates the process of writing individual questions in relation to the broader cognitive tasks required in writing a complete paper. It also situates the writing process within the social dimensions of question writing. Conclusions: Iteration in the writing process appears to have an important function. These iterations represent a form of decision-making that is common to the examination question writing culture and appears to be logical and rule bound. Whilst the recognition of iterative behaviour reveals a highly personalised element of question writing, it also reveals a common expectation that the ideas across a subject area are highly inter-related, and that an examination paper should reflect this.

Worldwide, over seven million children have been conceived to date using a variety of assisted reproductive technology (ART) techniques. In Europe, up to 6% of babies are currently conceived using ART (De Geyter et al., 2018De Geyter C. Calhaz-Jorge C. Kupka M.S. Wyns C. Mocanu E. Motrenko T. Scaravelli G. Smeenk J. Vidakovic S. Goossens V. I. V. F. m. C. f. t. E. S. o. H. R. European and EmbryologyART in Europe, 2014: results generated from European registries by ESHRE: The European IVF-monitoring Consortium (EIM) for the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).Hum Reprod. 2018; 33: 1586-1601Crossref PubMed Scopus (320) Google Scholar). As the use of ART increases, so too does the urgency to understand the long-term implications of these techniques for the later health and well-being of ART-conceived children. To date, the oldest ART-conceived individual is only 40 years old. Although the currently available evidence is broadly reassuring regarding the short-term outcomes of ART-conceived pregnancies, there is, as yet, little data about outcomes in adulthood, and no data at all on senescence in humans conceived using ART. However, experiments in rodent models show that fluctuations in the early developmental environment, for example different oxygen tensions (Belli et al., 2019Belli M. Zhang L. Liu X. Donjacour A. Ruggeri E. Palmerini M.G. Nottola S.A. Macchiarelli G. Rinaudo P. Oxygen concentration alters mitochondrial structure and function in in vitro fertilized preimplantation mouse embryos.Hum Reprod. 2019; 34: 601-611Google Scholar), can alter the normal trajectory of long-term development. The preimplantation embryo appears highly sensitive to tiny environmental fluctuations, perhaps even perturbations as small as opening the incubator (Nguyen et al., 2018Nguyen Q. Sommer S. Greene B. Wrenzycki C. Wagner U. Ziller V. Effects of opening the incubator on morphokinetics in mouse embryos.Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2018; 229: 64-69Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (5) Google Scholar). The question arises therefore, as to which ART techniques are most likely to induce the subtle alterations in the normal course of early embryonic development that may be linked to potential consequences for long-term development. Although ART techniques are designed to replicate the conditions of early embryonic development in vivo as closely as possible, there will inevitably be additional environmental challenges. Moreover, these challenges may vary considerably between different ART techniques. The article by Chen et al., 2019Chen M. Wong S.L. Wu L.L. Gordon Y.E. Heilbronn L.K. Robker R.L. Differential impacts of gonadotropins, IVF and embryo culture on mouse blastcyst development.Reprod. Biomed. 2019; 39 (Online 39, in this issue): 372-382Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (8) Google Scholar in this issue of RBMO is a timely and important study that aims to assess the relative impact of various ART techniques on the early mouse embryo. The well-constructed experimental design has resulted in a comprehensive investigation that isolates the impact of three different aspects of ART techniques. Importantly, the study focuses on techniques most commonly used in clinical practice: gonadotropin stimulation, fertilisation in vitro, and culture of the preimplantation embryo in vitro. The work of Chen et al. is particularly interesting with regard to the multi-faceted approach that the authors have taken in assessing blastocyst phenotype. Combining their powerful morphokinetic assay of real-time development with aspects of cell lineage allocation and cellular energetics (via proxy measurement of mtDNA copy number) amounts to an impressively thorough phenotyping. In an era when reproductive medicine clinics are vying to develop optimal protocols to enhance their success rates, and potential parents are deeply invested in maximising the success of ART, the study by these workers confirms that the early developmental trajectory of embryos produced by fertilisation of eggs in vitro is altered compared with those produced by fertilisation within the female reproductive tract. In particular, their observation of increased cell cycle time between the 4- and 8-cell stage in embryos fertilised in vitro compared with those fertilised within the reproductive tract merits further careful exploration. If the mechanism underlying prolonged early cell cycles for embryos conceived in vitro can be elucidated, then it is possible that it will be amenable to modification by altering parameters of early embryo culture. Particularly interesting from a clinical perspective are the findings regarding embryos conceived in vivo following gonadatropin stimulation compared with those conceived following ‘natural’ mating. In the absence of any developmental phase ex vivo, embryos conceived after gonadotropin stimulation were not significantly different from those conceived after ‘natural' mating in terms of their cell cycle kinetics. This is a reassuring finding in view of the high number of children worldwide conceived following gonadotropin stimulation. It is also notable that mtDNA copy number, one of the earliest adopted proxies of embryo quality, is significantly reduced when blastocysts develop outside of the female reproductive tract. The study's comprehensive design allows the authors to safely conclude that conception in vivo, rather than ovulation induction, is the key factor in determining mtDNA copy number per cell in the early embryo. While mtDNA copy number has been adopted across different contexts as a surrogate marker of mitochondrial activity, there is a clear and important next step here in interrogating this idea more directly, for example by measuring cellular oxygen consumption rate and assaying the relative activity of individual components of the electron transport chain. Chen et al. are to be congratulated on their informative characterisation of the impacts of different ART techniques on murine preimplantation embryonic development and for their careful attempts to replicate clinical embryo culture conditions. Their work paves the way for better understanding of the later-life implications of altered early developmental trajectories. While there is a clear theoretical mechanism that could link the observed anomalies of blastocyst development with later adverse offspring phenotypes, further work is required to establish these relationships in experimental models. We look forward with anticipation to further studies that interrogate mechanistic links between these subtle early developmental anomalies and later-life offspring phenotypes.

This article describes the origins and development of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and how it was influenced by, and influenced, basic research in developmental biology. It describes the technical and social challenges that confronted the pioneers in this field of study, and the considerable progress that has been made since those early days. It also considers how IVF has contributed, and continues to contribute, to our understanding of early human development.