Humans and fish have more in common than you might expect. Since the 1970s, a tropical freshwater minnow known as the zebrafish has been used to study the genetic and physiological development of living organisms. By mapping the zebrafish genome and studying irregularities in their development, researchers have been able to create robust models of how vertebrates develop, and identify genetic conditions that lead to diseases such as cancer. This image shows a false-color scanning electron micrograph of a zebrafish embryo.

This image appears in the Koch Institute Public Galleries as part of a partnership between the Koch Institute and Wellcome Images, a London-based world leader in the collection of biomedical images. To learn more about Wellcome Images, visit their website at: http://wellcomeimages.org/.