Inverse - 🧬 Growing life in a lab

Tuesday

Oct 04 2022

You may be familiar with the human-like replicants of Blade Runner — the creepy bioengineered people made from scratch with superpowers like advanced intelligence.

Outside of Hollywood, no scientists have come close to concocting a human from scratch. But a new discovery could change that.

In a recent study, scientists created a synthetic mouse embryo without the help of eggs or sperm. All they needed was an assortment of stem cells, along with a mechanical "womb" to nurture their growth.

If they can overcome a key obstacle, it may be possible for researchers to do the same with human cells — which could pose more of an ethical issue than a technical one.

What's New

HOW TO GROW A BABY

Innovation

Scientists have created a mechanical womb that can grow life in the lab

The dystopian universe of Blade Runner features replicants, or genetically bioengineered people with sci-fi powers, like super-strength and advanced intelligence, that far outstrip any ordinary individual (albeit with a limited lifespan). Their invention is considered a colossal feat of scientific achievement (and the basis for a pretty messed-up society).

But off of the silver screen, we’ve yet to come close to making any organism — let alone a human — entirely from scratch. Until now.

In a study published last month in the journal Nature, scientists in the U.S., U.K., and Israel successfully created a synthetic mouse embryo without using any eggs or sperm. Instead, they used an assortment of stem cells.

Compared to natural embryos maturing alongside them, these lab-grown counterparts developed similar features seen nearly nine days after fertilization, such as a beating heart, a very early-stage brain, and a gut tube — before they abruptly halted growth.

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Inverse Interview

Marvel

How Werewolf By Night morphed into Marvel’s most exciting project yet

On the first day of filming for Werewolf By Night, the most unusual project yet from Marvel Studios to date, composer-turned-director Michael Giacchino gathered his cast in a circle inside Atlanta’s Trilith Studios. He wanted to know what they were afraid of.

“I said, ‘Everyone has to tell me a story of something that scared you as a kid,’” Michael Giacchino tells Inverse. And so they did.

Giacchino continues: “After everyone went, I said, that’s what I want to do. I wanted to create moments that years from now, someone out in the world when they think back, they’re like, ‘I remember the first time I saw that and I was scared.’”

In Marvel’s shared universe, where the fate of the world is threatened every Tuesday, it can be hard to invoke a sense of fear. No matter how dark things get, Marvel’s superheroes show the thrill of having the power to face that which terrifies you. But for the first time, Marvel is taking away the color and the heroics for something more intimately transformative.

Anniversary

Science

65 years ago, “simple satellite” Sputnik redefined space science

Earth’s first-ever artificial satellite Sputnik launched on October 4, 1957. In that moment, which occurred sixty-five years ago, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union transformed into a race to dominate not only Earth but also space.

But there was more to the launch than met the eye — behind the development of satellites to orbit Earth was a more nefarious purpose.

“The other aspect of it was, of course, the race to develop the first intercontinental ballistic missile. The U.S. was working on the Atlas missile, and the Russians were working on the RS-7,” says Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and astrophysicist at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Take a look back

Trailer

Movies

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer solves the Marvel movie's biggest mystery

Wakanda Forever! Marvel just released a new trailer for its Black Panther sequel, and while it’s full of details from our first look at Ironheart to an extended preview of Namor, the Black Panther 2 trailer saves its biggest surprise for last.

The first trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ended with a glimpse of the title hero, but they were so obscured that all you could see was one leg and one clawed hand from behind.

In this new trailer, we get a much better look. In the final shot we see Black Panther drop from above and land in a classic superhero pose. The camera pans up to reveal an unmistakable female form hidden behind the costume and mask.

Watch

FAR, FAR AWAY

Space

Is the universe going to rip itself apart? This galaxy could hold a clue

This spiral galaxy isn’t just pretty — although it’s definitely that. The star system is also a benchmark for measuring the immensity of space.

Spiral galaxy UCG 9391 takes center stage in this stunning image from the Hubble Space Telescope, but the most dramatic part of the scene is the distance between the stars in the foreground and the galaxies in the background. Bright diffraction spikes mark luminous nearby stars, while mind-bogglingly distant galaxies range from tiny spirals to faint pinpricks of light. Imagine the immensity of a galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars; how far away must that galaxy be to appear as a single dot of light in the distance?

The galaxy at the heart of this image is helping astronomers answer that question more precisely.

Take a closer look

STRATEGY

Mind and Body

An antidote to heartbreak? Science reveals how to hack loneliness

For centuries, people have likened heartbreak to physical pain. Some describe rejection as a punch in the gut. Others feel like they’re missing a limb after losing a loved one.

When science writer Florence Williams heard such descriptions, she dismissed them as histrionic complaints of relationships gone wrong. But then, after her three-decade partnership ended abruptly, she found herself “adrift in the ocean,” she tells me, facing the same physical suffering as those mourning writers expressed. Her anxiety skyrocketed, she developed diabetes, and she lost weight rapidly.

It turns out Williams’ physical symptoms weren’t all in her head. Emerging scientific data suggests that social rejection — often in the form of heartbreak — can spark a similar firestorm of brain activity as physical pain.

But according to Williams, who recently summed up this body of evidence in her new book Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey, there are science-backed strategies to counter the negative downstream effects of rejection.

Meanwhile...

Here's when to see the bright Full Moon in the sky this week

Why your pee smells after eating asparagus — and why not everyone can smell it

The real reason why 'House of the Dragon' was so dark

You need to watch the most underrated time-travel movie on Netflix

Today in history: The Gregorian calendar was first introduced October 4, 1582.

Song of the day: "Spooky Scary Skeleton Dance Remix"

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Inverse - 🧬 Growing life in a lab

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