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Just two days after conception the cells in an early embryo appear different to each other. It had been thought that these cells are pluripotent – that they are able to divide and grow into any cell in the body. But new research shows that some of the cells show pluripotency, while one cell at this stage was not as genetically active and went on to become the placenta in the mouse embryo. Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz from Cambridge University explains how her team discovered this… Image: 4-cell mouse embryo. Credit: The Zernicka-Goetz Lab, University of Cambridge.