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China launches 'human artificial embryos' to space in bid to see whether reproduction is possible off-world
livescience ^

Posted on 05/24/2026 7:16:43 AM PDT by BenLurkin

The artificial embryos are made from collections of stem cells that can divide and multiply like a normal embryo but are unable to properly develop into a fetus or baby, allowing researchers to carry out their work with fewer ethical concerns.

"This is not a real human embryo and does not have the ability to develop into an individual," Leqian Yu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' (CAS) Institute of Zoology who is leading the experiment, said May 14 in a CAS statement. "However, it can serve as a model for studying early human development."

Two types of artificial embryos, representing different phases of embryonic development between 14 and 21 days after fertilization, were used in the experiment. The first is a peri-implantation model, which mimics the critical phase where an embryo attaches itself to the uterine wall. The second is a peri-gastrulation model, which replicates the point in early development when a single layer of cells reorganizes into distinct layers that will eventually form different tissues and organs.

As the embryos were developing in space, researchers in China grew and froze identical artificial embryos, which will serve as the control group for the experiment. "We hope that by comparing the development of space and ground samples, we can identify the factors affecting early human embryonic growth in the space environment, and address the risks and challenges humans may face during long-term space habitation," Yu said.

Similar experiments involving zebrafish embryos and mouse embryos were also launched on board Tianzhou-10.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
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1 posted on 05/24/2026 7:16:43 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

What could possibly go wrong?


2 posted on 05/24/2026 7:18:10 AM PDT by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: BenLurkin

I heard China only has 500 million people not over a billion


3 posted on 05/24/2026 7:18:21 AM PDT by butlerweave (Fateh)
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To: BenLurkin

Are they still trying to breed Man and Monkeys ? LOL


4 posted on 05/24/2026 7:19:08 AM PDT by butlerweave (Fateh)
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To: BenLurkin

That is not how I would conduct that experiment.


5 posted on 05/24/2026 7:21:26 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: butlerweave

The left managed to do it.

Free bananas


6 posted on 05/24/2026 7:26:40 AM PDT by Vaduz (NEVER TRUST A DEMOCRAT)
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To: BenLurkin
... are unable to properly develop into a fetus or baby, allowing researchers to carry out their work with fewer ethical concerns.

Say what you will about this in a general way, would scientists in the USA have this much "ethical concerns"?

7 posted on 05/24/2026 7:40:53 AM PDT by Salman (The Democrats have seceded from the human race. It's time for Trump to go full Pinochet.)
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To: dfwgator

Lots.


8 posted on 05/24/2026 7:42:34 AM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: GingisK

I’m with you on this one.


9 posted on 05/24/2026 7:42:48 AM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: BenLurkin

WTF??????


10 posted on 05/24/2026 7:49:09 AM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: BenLurkin

“allowing researchers to carry out their work with fewer ethical concerns”

The CCP has ethical concerns? Who’a thunk it?


11 posted on 05/24/2026 7:53:33 AM PDT by beef (The pendulum will not swing back. It will snap back. Hard.)
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To: butlerweave

Due to their decades and decades of ‘One Child Policy’, China will soon become a nation of elderly people..............


12 posted on 05/24/2026 8:01:22 AM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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To: BenLurkin

Well, it is marginally more ethical than the USSR’s stranding that dog in space. What was her name, Leta?


13 posted on 05/24/2026 8:26:41 AM PDT by bobbo666
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To: BenLurkin

There is nothing for us in space. The human body can’t survive there long-term. And real space, beyond our own solar system is out of reach and always will be. Sheer distance and the laws of physics will keep us locked in our own little world.


14 posted on 05/24/2026 8:55:20 AM PDT by rexthecat
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To: BenLurkin

They are called embryos but are not embryos.


15 posted on 05/24/2026 9:05:36 AM PDT by I want the USA back (America is once again GREAT! Blue Lives Matter! White lives matter. )
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To: BenLurkin
That's the storyline of "The Big Space F**k," by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Vonnegut was a visionary! A piss-poor writer - but a visionary!

Regards,

16 posted on 05/24/2026 11:28:48 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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