Princeton, NJ, USA. Newly fertilized embryo cells have acquired a mechanism to contain a dangerous instability and narrowly avoid degenerating into fatal chaos, a finding that could help biologists unravel other mysteries about the first hours of life.

Contrary to conventional ideas that embryonic cells develop in natural synchrony, a research team found they are prone to a descent into disarray. Without stabilization, cells develop on different schedules, and many stop developing altogether, which threatens the embryo's survival.

Austin, TX, USA. Psychologists have demonstrated an experimental bias in earlier research that argued younger adults made better decisions than older adults.

Rather than testing the ability to make decisions one at a time without regard to past or future, as earlier work did, these researchers designed a model more like decision making in the real world, requiring participants to evaluate each result in order to strategize the next choice.