The intro

Scientists have grown an entity that closely resembles an early human embryo, without using sperm, eggs or a womb. The Weizmann Institute team say their "embryo model", made using stem cells, looks like a textbook example of a real 14-day-old embryo. It even released hormones that turned a pregnancy test positive in the lab. The ambition for embryo models is to provide an ethical way of understanding the earliest moments of our lives.

The first weeks after a sperm fertilises an egg is a period of dramatic change - from a collection of indistinct cells to something that eventually becomes recognisable on a baby scan. This crucial time is a major source of miscarriage and birth defects but poorly understood. "It's a black box and that's not a cliche - our knowledge is very limited," Prof Jacob Hanna, from the Weizmann Institute of Science, tells me.

  • Spendrill@lemm.ee
    ·
    1 year ago

    Cor, religious types are going to be screaming and crying and shitting themselves over this.

    • QuillcrestFalconer [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      No fertilization has occurred so it's fair game.

      If life begins at fertilization and there wasn't any fertilization it can't be life right?

      • Spendrill@lemm.ee
        ·
        1 year ago

        I think this is a different argument: scientists playing god creating life, it's an abomination.

        If you're waiting for them to hold several positions that are internally consistent then I hope you've got a comfortable chair and several interesting and hefty books to read.

  • RNAi [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Ah, man made horrors completely comprehensible to me