Science has given the world a lot of big developments, like clones and sexy robots. A new breakthrough in embryo research means human embryos can now survive outside a womb for longer than ever before.
Two teams in the U.S. and the UK succeeded in developing a procedure to grow human embryos, and keep them alive for 13 days, the point right before cells begin the process of forming a human. This achievement is a big deal because human embryos typically last an average of seven days outside the womb, while some embryos make it as far as nine days.
Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, lead researcher of the UK team at Cambridge University, told The Guardian, "We can now, for the very first time, study human development at this very critical stage of our lives, at the time of implantation."
Knowing more about human development is great, but this research could also yield important information as to why miscarriages occur, or help by cultivating stem cells.
Adding those extra four days to an embryo's existence could pave the way for some serious legal battles, though. Think bigger battles than what North Carolina has been experiencing since issuing the anti-LGBT House Bill 2.
Laws in the U.S. and the UK limit studying embryos to 14 days because that's when the "primitive streak" begins to develop, launching the growth from embryo to fetus. The primitive streak is a band of cells that appear around the embryo, and differentiate between the head and tail, according to the University of Michigan Medical School.
But scientists want more time than just 14 days now that they've gotten close to reaching that limit. To that end, Zernicka-Goetz and others behind the discovery penned a letter in the journal Nature calling for an extension to the limit.
In the U.S., laws related to studying embryos vary by state, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Opposition to embryo research tends to come from religious groups.
While the future of human embryo research may need to reexamine the limits in order to keep pushing into the future, this turning point in science marks a massive breakthrough when it comes to understanding human life. Take that, sexy robots.
Zernicka-Goetz did not immediately respond to Complex's request for comment.
