Cell Replication and Cancerous Cells

Students explore mitosis and learn about uncontrolled cell division, or cancer.

Dance of Development

Watch the "dance" of development as a zebrafish egg divides and differentiates on its way to becoming an embryo in this interactive activity adapted from the Exploratorium.

How Cancer Cells Grow and Divide

This animation from NOVA: "Battle in the War on Cancer: Breast Cancer" describes how oncogenes cause cancer and how cancerous cells can spread throughout the body.

Accessibility features: Audio Description, Caption, Transcript

How Cancer Grows

Follow the growth of a carcinoma from initial mutation to widespread metastasis in this feature from the NOVA: "Cancer Warrior" Web site.

How Cells Divide: Mitosis vs. Meiosis

How exactly does meiosis mix and halve chromosomes? Find out through this feature from NOVA: "18 Ways to Make a Baby," which provides a step-by-step, side-by-side comparison of meiosis and mitosis.

Mitosis

This video segment, adapted from the Interactive Secret of Life videodisc, explains the stages of mitosis, the process of dividing equally a cell's massive jumble of DNA just prior to cell division.

Accessibility features: Audio Description, Caption

The Nuts and Bolts of DNA Replication

In this animation from Secret of Life: "Immortal Thread," watch how DNA unzips and replicates under normal conditions, and how mistakes called mutations are incorporated into genes.