Epilogue

Summary

Developmental biologists are a special breed. They are mainly driven by curiosity about how simplicity becomes complexity, as expressed in the title of Philip Ball’s book The Self-Made Tapestry [57]. Like Lewis Carroll’s Alice, they love exploring for its own sake, and they rejoice in being able to share their discoveries with like-minded souls. Attending a conference of one of their societies is like going to a religious revival meeting. Secular though they may be, they are as passionate as any preacher about spreading the news of Nature’s beauty and glory and artistry. In short, embryologists are evangelists, and their enthusiasm has imbued this field with an ethos of energy, vitality, and purpose.