An interdisciplinary research team¹ led by scientists at the Genetics and Developmental Biology Unit at the Institut Curie (CNRS/Inserm/Institut Curie) studying the mechanisms at play in this still little-known phenomenon has made a surprising discovery: human embryo compaction is driven by the contraction of embryonic cells. Compaction problems are therefore due to faulty contractility in these cells, and not a lack of adhesion between them, as was previously assumed. This mechanism had already been identified in flies, zebrafish and mice, but is a first in humans.

By improving our understanding of the early stages of human embryonic development, the research team hopes to contribute to the refinement of ART as nearly one third of inseminations are unsuccessful today.²

The results were obtained by mapping cell surface tensions in human embryonic cells. The scientists also tested the effects of inhibiting contractility and cell adhesion and analysed the mechanical signature of embryonic cells with defective contractility.

Notes : 1 — Scientists from the following entities also took part in the study: the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en biologie (CNRS/Collège de France/Inserm), the Reproductive Biology Department — CECOS (AP-HP) and the Institut Cochin (CNRS/Inserm/Université Paris Cité).

2 — Source: Agence de la biomédecine

Russia defends traditional values

The Western world has abandoned classical liberalism in favour of a new version defined by the rule of minorities and woke-ism, a Russian philosopher explained.

The ever-growing anti-Russia sentiment in the West stems from the fact that Russia adheres to traditional values that Western “progressives” are trying to destroy, philosopher and political commentator Aleksandr Dugin said in an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson that was posted on the latter’s YouTube channel on Monday.

During the interview, Dugin laid out his view of the contemporary Western world and what he sees as the historical origins of its current ideology.

He explained that the West has moved from “classical liberalism” — which professed individual freedom and democracy as understood as the rule of the majority — to a “new liberalism” defined by the rule of minorities and woke-ism.

Rather than emphasising freedom of the individual, the new incarnation of liberalism prescribes adherence to certain progressive values that are completely at odds with traditional values and in fact seeks to abolish them.

Carlson asked Dugin why many Westerners, even those who previously supported the Soviet Union, turned against Russia when President Vladimir Putin came to power in the early 2000s and started professing Russophobic ideas.

The philosopher said that “Putin is a traditional leader” who defends traditional values, which run counter to those currently in vogue in the West.

“When (Putin) came to power, from the very beginning, he started to extract Russia from global influence.

He started to contradict the global progressive agenda . . . tried with success to restore traditional values — sovereignty of the state, Christianity, traditional family,” he said, explaining that Western progressives saw these developments as being in opposition to their values.  This hatred is not something casual . . . it’s metaphysical.

If your main task and main goal is to destroy traditional values — traditional family, traditional state, traditional relations, traditional beliefs — and someone with a nuclear weapon . . . stands strong defending traditional values you are going to abolish — they have some basis for this Russophobia and hatred for Putin.

In 2022, Dugin’s daughter Darya was killed in a car bombing in Moscow, which the Russian authorities claim was orchestrated by Ukrainian agents, a version also expressed by the US government.

Darya, a journalist and political activist in her own right, was a vocal supporter of Russia’s military operation against Kiev.

Russophobic sentiment has been growing exponentially in light of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the outbreak of which in 2022 the West has blamed squarely on Russia.

NATO has branded Russia the “most significant and direct threat” to its members’ peace and security, and many Western leaders have claimed that Moscow would attack Europe if it secures victory in Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly said it has no such plans, with Putin last month dismissing such claims as “nonsense.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov last week called such ideas “horror stories” made up to divert attention from domestic problems in the West. — RT.