Experimental Embryology in Aquatic Plants and Animals

Book excerpt: The NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Experimental Embryology in Aquatic Plant and Animal Organisms" was attended by more than 70 participants, including 15 invited main lecturers from 18 different countries. In accordance with the main purpose of the meeting, senior scientists, postdoctoral investigators and graduate students working in areas of descriptive and experimental embryology, classical, molecular and developmental biology, physiology and biochemistry etc. , were brought together for two weeks as a community with a strong common interest in "development"; that is, the multiple phenomena and mechanisms, in molecular, cellular, genetic and organismic terms, observed in the development of aquatic organisms. Initial concern that the great variety of biological models as well as of research subjects would harm the scientific quality and coherency of the course was unnecessary. It was exactly this breadth which made the Institute worthwhile for each of the participants. Since many of the "students" were younger scientists starting a career, it was the main goal of the course to offer a concise overview of selected system models of primarily aquatic organisms and to present and discuss research carried out in the past and in progress. Thus, each main speaker gave two in-depth lectures: one in which he presented an overview of "his" model and another dealing with current investigations.