There is currently a complete black box period in human developments effectively between 14 days and 35 days. That's a point at which a lot of pregnancies fail for people who've got fertility issues or recurrent miscarriage. It could also provide new insights into the effects of drugs on embryos, on gestational diabetes and how that affects the embryos development. But right now the plan is certainly not to allow these to develop into full embryos even if they could.
Scientists have created synthetic human embryos using stem cells in a groundbreaking advance that sidesteps the need for eggs or sperm. Madeleine Finlay speaks to science correspondent Hannah Devlin about her world exclusive story on this development, what it could mean for medical research, and whether the ethical and regulatory classifications of these embryos are keeping pace with the science. Help support our independent journalism at
theguardian.com/sciencepod