They stressed that their work is only for research, not reproduction, but it likely will pose new ethical questions.
“Studying early human development is really difficult. It’s basically a black box,” said Jun Wu, a stem cell biologist at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center.
“We believe our model can open up this field,” he said, if “you can test your hypothesis without using human embryos.”
Wu’s team used embryonic stem cells and the second team used reprogrammed skin cells to produce balls of cells that resemble one of the earliest stages of human development.
These balls, called blastocysts, form a few days after an egg has been fertilized but before the cells attach to the uterus to become an embryo. To differentiate their models from blastocysts created through fertilization, the researchers refer to the structures as “iBlastoids” and “human blastoids.”
Continue reading your story on the app
Continue reading your story in the magazine
GOOGLE STRIKES CONTENT DEALS WITH 300 EUROPEAN PUBLISHERS
Google said that it struck licensing deals with 300 news publishers in Europe in its latest effort to comply with a recently introduced European Union copyright law.
MS. PAC-MAN CLEARS PATH TO WORLD VIDEO GAME HALL OF FAME
More than 40 years after blazing a trail for female video game characters, Ms. Pac-Man was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame, along with Dance Dance Revolution, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Sid Meier’s Civilization.
SEC: NVIDIA FAILED TO DISCLOSE CRYPTO AS REVENUE GENERATOR
Nvidia, a major tech company that has expanded aggressively into gaming, will pay a $5.5 million penalty for failing to disclose that crypto-mining was a significant source of revenue growth from the sale of graphics processing units that were produced and marketed for gaming.
GOOGLE GETS MORE MULTILINGUAL, BUT WILL IT GET THE NUANCE?
About 10 million people speak Quechua, but trying to automatically translate emails and text messages into the most widely spoken Indigenous language family in the Americas was long all but impossible.
CRYPTO COMES TO WASHINGTON. WILL THE MILLIONS BUY INFLUENCE?
Erin Houchin braced for the worst when a mysterious, well-financed group started buying television ads last month in her highly competitive southern Indiana congressional race.
COINBASE LOSES HALF ITS VALUE IN A WEEK AS CRYPTO SLUMPS
Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase has lost half its value in the past week, including its biggest one-day drop 5o date on Wednesday as the famously volatile crypto market weathers yet another slump.
4 WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR SMALL BUSINESS FROM CYBERATTACKS
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses have quickly adopted remote working and transitioned to new technologies, such as contactless payments and online ordering.
BIDEN ANNOUNCES PROGRAM OFFERING DISCOUNTED INTERNET SERVICE
President Joe Biden announced that 20 internet companies have agreed to provide discounted service to people with low incomes, a program that could effectively make tens of millions of households eligible for free service through an already existing federal subsidy.
EA SPORTS AND FIFA END PARTNERSHIP, BOTH EYE NEW VIDEO GAMES
Electronic Arts will stop making its hugely successful FIFA video game in its current name, marking a split in one of soccer’s most successful and lucrative partnerships after the sides failed to strike a new licensing deal.
GOOGLE ADOPTS AN APPLE-LIKE APPROACH FOR ITS PIXEL PRODUCTS
Google took a big step toward pushing its Pixel product line-up down a road already paved by Apple and its array of trendsetting devices.
FIND OUT AND FIX WHAT BIG DATA SAYS ABOUT YOU
I thought I knew all about the information that consumer reporting agencies were collecting on me.
Space Savers
Multipurpose furniture is the answer to compact living spaces, writes Hasmita Amtha
PROOF COVID IS CHINESE BIOWEAPON!
Harvard expert details Wuhan lab link to virus
GAY LOVE TRIANGLE ENDS IN MURDER!
Cop collared for shooting ex and her new lover
U.S. COVERING UP CHINA COVID LEAK
DESPITE tons of evidence the COVID-19 virus originated in China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, an intelligence report ordered by President Joe Biden has determined its source is “inconclusive,” leading foreign relations experts and scientists to suspect a cover-up!
A Lost Chance to Track Covid?
A study of the trade in live wild animals at Wuhan wet markets stayed unpublished for more than a year
CHINA'S COVID COVER-UP WASN'T THE FIRST!
Bombshell virus report reveals deadly pattern going back decades
Revenge of the Nerds
How amateur sleuths broke the Wuhan lab story
DEADLY WUHAN COVER-UP!
U.S. health officials untangling how virus escaped secret bio lab
Gain Of Function
How much risk of an accidental pandemic is too much?