I'm a PhD student in one of the mentioned labs. This week has been a little crazy since Magda gave a talk at the annual ISSCR conference announcing her progress

I'm a PhD student in one of the mentioned labs. This week has been a little crazy since Magda gave a talk at the annual ISSCR conference announcing her progress on what she called a "synthetic embryo" a term that the field has specifically made efforts to shy away from...She also began speaking to the press even though her publication is not out yet. For context, Hanna kind of scooped Zernicka-Goetz on the mouse post-implantation embryoid model last year which is probably why she gave the talk and began speaking to the press even though her actual publication is in reviewer limbo (it is unclear what stage of acceptance is in). Hanna responded by immediately publishing his pre-print to biorxiv and Zernicka-Goetz followed soon after. So they're in a race to see who gets first, which I think will be Hanna's. Zernicka-Goetz has been scooped before on a big story so this is probably playing a role here. This is the stem cell field's version of the "who invented CRISPR" race, although the impact will probably(?) be smaller. Great article!