Hi Janet, you published your first paper with development in 1975. Do you remember what it was on? I very vividly remember what it was about. It's about testing whether the inner cell muscles in the mouth glasses are committed to their pluripotent fate. We took the cells and we aggregated them with 8 cell embryos and then followed their fate when they were back inside the uterus. And you know that paper stands the test of time. We've done it again with better markers and more detail over the years but that really still is one of the issues that we have to understand is when do linear restrictions occur in the embryo? You've been publishing with development for over 40 years now. Why do you choose to send your papers to development? I've published in development since my first paper and I continue to publish as long as I've got good papers to publish because I think development and the gene before it really is the best but journal for developmental biology in the world. It really has papers that are rigorous of high standards and you know if it's a paper in development it's going to be something you want to read and it's going to make a difference in the field. So you're really in developmental biologists at heart but more recently you've become engaged in a stem cell field. How are those two areas related? Developmental biology and stem cell biology are really very closely related fields. Understanding early development helps us identify stem cells, particularly pluripotent stem cells which will first identify in the mouse blastocyst and then of course in humans but also if you want to take stem cells and turn them into the right cell types to be used for regenerative medicine or to study human development then you need to be able to understand normal development because you have to replicate that process in the stem cells. Your work is so well-known throughout the stem cell field but can you tell us something about yourself that we might not know? Well I surprised my colleagues a little while ago when I had to get an award and had to choose a piece of music to walk up on the stage and I chose Bruce Springsteen born to run and you know why it's my favourite song I think because it represents everything I am not but maybe secretly aspire to be wild spontaneous, free. That's fantastic! Yes! Baby we were born to run! It would be just like failure! That would be the coming on the stage! Do do do do do baby we were born to run!