When the map becomes the territory
当模型变成实体
Lab-grown models of embryos increasingly resemble the real thing
实验室培养的胚胎模型越来越接近真胚胎
- embryo 胚胎（参见：小词详解 | embryo）
Embryoids promise many benefits, but pose tricky ethical questions
拟胚体有望带来诸多益处，但也带来了棘手的伦理问题
- tricky 难办的；难对付的
THE TRADITIONAL way to make an embryo is to combine a sperm cell with an egg, often after dinner and a bottle of wine. But a new way may be around the corner. In recent years scientists have discovered that they can persuade stem cells—those with the ability to transform into many other sorts of cells—to form structures that look and behave very much like embryos.
传统生成胚胎的方法是让精子细胞与卵子结合，通常发生在两个人吃完晚餐喝了点酒之后。但一种新的方式可能即将到来。近年来，科学家发现，他们可以诱使干细胞（那些能够转化为许多其他类型细胞的细胞）形成外观和机能都非常类似胚胎的结构。
- 拓展学习：熟词僻义 | egg 是一种怎样的鼓励？
“Embryoids”, as such creations are called, can help with the study of embryology and pregnancy, and how they can go wrong. Some of the facsimiles look strikingly real. In 2022 two teams, one led by Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, who works at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Cambridge, and another by Jacob Hanna at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Israel, published papers describing mouse embryoids with rudimentary guts, brains and beating hearts. In June Dr Zernicka-Goetz published a paper describing a human embryoid designed to mimic the earliest stages of development, shortly after a real embryo would have implanted into its mother’s womb.
这种被称为“拟胚体”的结构有助于胚胎学和妊娠研究，以及探究相关病症的原因。有些拟胚体看起来异常接近真胚胎。2022年，由在加州理工学院和剑桥大学任职的马格达莱纳·泽妮可-格兹（Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz）领导的研究团队和另一个由以色列的魏茨曼科学研究所（Weizmann Institute of Science）的雅各布·汉纳（Jacob Hanna）领导的团队分别发表了论文，介绍了具有肠道、大脑和跳动的心脏雏形的小鼠拟胚体。今年6月，泽妮可-格兹又发表了一篇论文，描述了一种人类拟胚体，旨在模仿真正的胚胎植入母体子宫后的最初发育阶段。
- facsimile 摹本；传真本；复制本
- rudimentary 未充分发展的；原始的
- womb 英 [wuːm] 美 [wuːm] 子宫
