Each of us has grown out of a tiny group of cells that at one time had the capacity to turn into any component of the body. As we grew, these cells divided and became specialized, but how does a cell know that it needs to become a piece of brain, bone or liver cell, based on its location, rather than something else? The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

The capacity to specialize is central to our society. People spend decades getting very good at a small number of things. We might venerate the Da Vincis that can excel in multiple areas at once, but if we all tried it society would grind to a halt because almost everything would be done badly. Of course, that doesn’t stop the online peanut gallery who think they know more abo

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