Nebulous

For anyone that might be curious, no, that picture on the right isn't me. For one thing, it's a lot bigger -- I'm only about 3/4 of an inch long at this point, and that thing is the "Embryo Nebula," an emission nebula in the area of Casseiopeia.

From Wikipedia: "An emission nebula is a cloud of ionized gas (i.e. a plasma) emitting light of various colors. The most common source for ionization are high-energy photons emitted from a nearby hot star. Among the several different types of emission nebula are H II regions, in which star formation is taking place and young, massive stars are the source of the ionising photons; and planetary nebulae, in which a dying star has thrown off its outer layers, with the exposed hot core then ionizing them."

So I guess my geeky host was interested because of the name and shape of the nebula, and because it may be the result of star formation taking place.

As for my own development, in theory I now have arms and legs, and much less of a tail -- I am coming out of the sort-of-reptilian-looking phase. My head is pretty round and has eyes and the beginnings of ears. This is a pretty exciting time.

Also, although I am counting my age from -- like I said before -- the uniting of my DNA, I am informed that "gestational age" is calculated from roughly two weeks before that. So that means although I am a 6-week-old embryo, my "gestational age" is 8 weeks. I don't know why they make it so complicated, but I'm glad I got that sorted out.