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Tiny blobs of jelly spin perfect circles in the water – their movement produces a force that attracts their neighbors. When enough of them come together, this synchronized dance aligns them into a precise six-sided, regular, repeating pattern, much like the carbon atoms in graphene’s crystal structure. But these are not atoms or any kind of inanimate object governed solely by the forces of physics – they are living, self-propelled, embryonic starfish ( patiria miniata ). The spinning starfish embryos gather into living crystals. (Tan et al., Natural 2022) “We know we have crystals of many materials, but we have never really linked crystal formation to actually living components,” said MIT physicist Nikta Fakhri. Natural . “This is a truly extraordinary phenomenon that has never been reported before.” Fakhri, MIT physicist Tzer Han Tan and colleagues studied active matter — a system in which each individual component (such as a bird in a flock, or a cell in a drop of water) uses energ

People often think that early embryos are fragile and need support. However, in the early stages of development, it has the power to feed the future placenta and command the uterus for nesting. Using the ‘blastoid’, an in vitro embryo model formed with stem cells, Nicolas Rivron’s Lab at IMBA demonstrated that the earliest molecular signals that induce placental development and prepare the uterus come from the embryo itself. The findings, now published in Cell Stem Cell, could contribute to a better understanding of human fertility. Who took care of whom in early life? The placenta and uterus nourish and protect the fetus. But the situation at an early stage of development, when the blastocyst is still afloat in the uterus, is so far unclear. Now, Nicolas Rivron’s group of researchers at IMBA (Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences) discovered the basic principles of early development using blastoids. The blastoid is an in vitro model of the blas