Aristotle studied developing organisms, among other things, in ancient Greece, and his writings shaped Western philosophy and natural science for greater than two thousand years. He spent much of his life in Greece and studied with Plato at Plato's Academy in Athens, where he later established his own school called the Lyceum. Aristotle wrote greater than 150 treatises on subjects ranging from aesthetics, politics, ethics, and natural philosophy, which include physics and biology. Less than fifty of Aristotle's treatises persisted into the twenty-first century. In natural philosophy, later called natural science, Aristotle established methods for investigation and reasoning and provided a theory on how embryos generate and develop. He originated the theory that an organism develops gradually from undifferentiated material, later called epigenesis.

The Cell-Theory was written by Thomas Henry Huxley in Britain and published in 1853 by The British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review. The twenty-two page article reviews twelve works on cell theory, including those in Germany by Caspar Friedrich Wolff in the eighteenth century and by Karl Ernst von Baer in the nineteenth century. Huxley spends much of The Cell-Theory on a cell theory proposed in the late 1830s by Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann in Germany. Schleiden and Schwann maintained that the cell was the most fundamental unit of life and that the nucleus was the most significant cellular component. Huxley, instead, promoted an epigenetic theory of the cell, for which properties of life emerge from the outer cytoplasm, cell membrane, and wall (the periplast), as opposed to the inner contents of the cell, including the nucleus (the endoplast). Huxley's arguments in The Cell-Theory influenced future scientists about the role of epigenetic processes in embryology and development.

Over the past few decades, female infertility rates have been steadily increasing. As of 2025, various infertility treatments, including IVF and artificial insemination, exist that enable some otherwise infertile women to experience pregnancy. However, those available treatments rely on women to have a uterus. Although the majority of women are born with a typical functioning uterus, between 3-5% of women worldwide have uterine factor infertility, a medical condition where women either do not have a normal functioning uterus or completely lack a uterus. Experimentation with uterus transplantations and artificial uteruses have begun as potential treatment options. This research project explores the evolution of infertility treatments to understand the ethical and social implications of these developing uterine technologies. I conducted this research as a member of the Embryo Project Encyclopedia, an open access resource focused on effectively communicating scientific topics of reproduction, embryology, and developmental biology to diverse public audiences. My analysis revealed that anatomical research concerning the uterus’ function began between the antiquity era and the Renaissance. By the end of the seventeenth century, intellectuals understood the morphology and reproductive function of the uterus and other female reproductive organs; however, no treatments existed to remedy infertility. Over the next three centuries, researchers began to experiment with artificial insemination and IVF, which eventually overcame ethical criticisms to become common medical practices by the end of the twentieth century. My findings reveal that uterus transplantations and artificial uteruses will likely follow the historical trends of previous reproductive technologies and become future medical practices.