As our bodies grow throughout childhood and puberty, our final height and the shape of our skeleton are largely determined by growth plates—areas of new growth at both ends of the long bones, such as those in the arms, legs, hands and feet. These areas expand, and the cartilage they are made of gradually hardens into solid tissue, adding length and width to the bones. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have developed a method that makes it possible to examine, for the first time, the cellular makeup of growth plates in three dimensions. The method has enabled new insights into the growth of healthy bone and the ways that this growth may be disrupted in dwarfism.