A Japanese team of researchers have turned embryonic mouse stem cells into a very basic eye, or ‘optic cup’. This video shows a time-lapse of the cells self-organising into the structure:

As you watch the video and read the article, think about the following curriculum links:

• How do cells ‘organise’ and how do stem cells become differentiated?
• What might be the therapeutic uses of this in the future?
• What functionality does this ‘eye’ have compared to ours?

“Remarkably, the rudimentary eye and the different types of cells it contained took shape spontaneously from a floating cluster of embryonic stem cells the scientists had cultured.”

The Guardian has a good article on the story. The original paper was published in Nature (paywall), but their Scitable area has a very good focus on stem cells.