If you've ever wondered what cell division actually looks like, this incredible time-lapse by francischeefilms on YouTube gives you the best view we've ever seen, showing a real-life tadpole egg dividing from four cells into several million in the space of just 20 seconds.
Of course, that's lightening speed compared to how long it actually takes - according to Adam Clark Estes at Gizmodo, the time-lapse has sped up 33 hours of painstaking division into mere seconds for our viewing pleasure.
The species you see developing here is Rana temporaria, the common frog, which lays 1,000 to 2,000 eggs at a time in shallow, fresh water ponds.
According to the team behind the footage, they had to build their own equipment to film it like this, and had to devise a way to get the lighting and microscope set-up just right.
"The whole microscope sits on anti-vibration table. [I]t doesn't matter too much what microscope people use to perform this," francischeefilms describe on their YouTube page.
"There are countless other variables involved in performing this tricky shot, such as: the ambient temperature during shooting; the time at which the eggs were collected; the handling skills of the operator; the type of water used; lenses; quality of camera etc."
Check out the footage above, marvel at life itself, and then let SciShow tell you how it all ends - on a cellular level:
H/T Digg