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Switching Beaks

Scientists have manipulated cells of duck and quail embryos so that the duck would have the beak of a quail and the quail would have the bill of a duck. To find out why, NPR's Lynn Neary talks with Jill Helms, associate professor, department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, and senior author of "The Cellular and Molecular Origins of Beak Morphology." The article is in the current issue of Science magazine.

Copyright 2003 NPR

Lynn Neary is an NPR arts correspondent covering books and publishing.