
Embryo
The Science of Becoming Human
Alfonso Martinez Arias(Author)
Globe Pequot Press
Will be published approx. on 17. November 2026
Book
Hardback
250 pages
978-1-4930-9518-6 (ISBN)
Description
Groundbreaking discoveries in reproductive biology and regenerative medicine are reshaping our ideas of conception, fertility, and the origins of disease. In Embryo, world-leading developmental biologist Alfonso Martinez Arias traces the embryo's formation over its first fifty days while exploring how new technologies are changing how we view our origins, ourselves, and our future.
The events that shape our lives happen in secret, inside our mother’s wombs, but Martinez Arias’s research with stem cells has laid them all out in the open. His work has shown that during the first fifty days after conception, a blueprint is created through a conversation between genes and cells in which the cells, not the genes, dictate what happens next. Many diseases have their origins during these early days and research has opened the door to their cure. But it has also opened a Pandora’s box of ethical questions associated with whether we should allow the genetic modification of embryos, or what would happen if we are to create a human being in the laboratory. What exactly are we doing? How far should we take this research? Beyond establishing new paths for the study of human development, Martinez Arias is also a vocal advocate on the need to address outstanding issues of the ethical and legal aspects of human embryology. This brilliant and breath-taking book tackles these existential questions by revealing the cutting-edge developments happening at the frontier of development biology, from In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and artificial wombs to the impact of stem cells, three-parent babies, CRISPR, and the potential for lab-grown embryos.
Embryo tells the story that raises these urgent questions and looks into a future that a few years ago would have sounded like science fiction. It is a definitive account of the state-of-the-art in our understanding of the earliest stages of our existence, brought to life through vivid stories blending scientific discovery, history, and real people.
The events that shape our lives happen in secret, inside our mother’s wombs, but Martinez Arias’s research with stem cells has laid them all out in the open. His work has shown that during the first fifty days after conception, a blueprint is created through a conversation between genes and cells in which the cells, not the genes, dictate what happens next. Many diseases have their origins during these early days and research has opened the door to their cure. But it has also opened a Pandora’s box of ethical questions associated with whether we should allow the genetic modification of embryos, or what would happen if we are to create a human being in the laboratory. What exactly are we doing? How far should we take this research? Beyond establishing new paths for the study of human development, Martinez Arias is also a vocal advocate on the need to address outstanding issues of the ethical and legal aspects of human embryology. This brilliant and breath-taking book tackles these existential questions by revealing the cutting-edge developments happening at the frontier of development biology, from In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and artificial wombs to the impact of stem cells, three-parent babies, CRISPR, and the potential for lab-grown embryos.
Embryo tells the story that raises these urgent questions and looks into a future that a few years ago would have sounded like science fiction. It is a definitive account of the state-of-the-art in our understanding of the earliest stages of our existence, brought to life through vivid stories blending scientific discovery, history, and real people.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Old Saybrook
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4930-9518-6 (9781493095186)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Alfonso Martinez Arias PhD is a world-leading developmental biologist. He is currently ICREA Research Professor in the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, in Barcelona, Spain. Prior to that, he was Professor of Developmental Mechanics at the University of Cambridge. For the last twenty years his research has focused on using embryonic stem cells (ESCs) to explore their potential to build embryos. Martinez Arias is regularly quoted and covered as a scientist at the forefront of developmental biology and human embryology, and delivers keynote speeches at conferences around the world. He is the author of The Master Builder.
Content
Contents
Preface
An act of becoming
Chapter 1. In the beginning
Chapter 2. A ledger of genes
Chapter 3. Building a cradle
Chapter 4. The blueprint
Chapter 5: On the threshold of human life
Chapter 6: Harnessing the inner drive of the cells
The first century after IVF
Acknowledgements
Sources of quotes in text
Further reading
Index
Preface
An act of becoming
Chapter 1. In the beginning
- The start of the road
- Ex ovo omnia
- Lighting the fuse
- The crucible of our being
- Babies with three parents
- Virgin births
Chapter 2. A ledger of genes
- Bookkeeping
- Multiplication and division
- The book of life or a catalogue of tools?
- Crystal balls
- A red line: changing our fate
- Breaking the rules
- The Yin and Yang of our existence
- Chemical post-its
- The memory of the genes
Chapter 3. Building a cradle
- Good news
- Frogs, kits and human pregnancies
- Invasions and attachments
- Experiments with viruses
- A cradle
- Water
- The embryo’s sibling
- The importance of being inside
- Brave new world?
Chapter 4. The blueprint
- Extraordinary beings
- Cabinets of curiosities
- A normal embryo
- When I began tobe me
- Gastrulation
- The genes in the machine
- Making room
- Theme and variations
- In Hox cells trust
- Our family and other animals
Chapter 5: On the threshold of human life
- A network of cells
- The birth of sentience
- The brainmaker
- Brains without bodies
- Getting a head
- Making faces
- Sex
- A human being in the making
- Becoming human
Chapter 6: Harnessing the inner drive of the cells
- A holy grail
- New blood
- The Recovery of time lost
- The fountain of youth
- Of pigs and men
- Blastocyst foundries
- Headlines and embryos
- Find my secret
- What’s in a name?
The first century after IVF
Acknowledgements
Sources of quotes in text
Further reading
Index