34-second MPEG-4 video, 2262 x 2048 px

These are two four-day-old baby mice. This is my embryonic first mint, made from microscopy of 2 mouse blastocysts, cells tagged with special fluorescent dyes developed by the scientists. Pluripotent means capable of giving rise to several different cell types. Due to the work of M. Zernicka-Goetz and others in her field, we now know that cell destiny begins at day two, even if malleable. Scientists study mammalian mice because their early development is similar to humans'. You and everyone you know looked like this at 4 days after conception, by which time stem cells have taken paths toward an ultimate collective destiny. The blue cells will become the placenta, and the cluster of cells will become the embryo. Hundreds more forks in the road ahead.

Pioneering science and 3D confocal fluorescence microscopy by embryologists Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz and former postdoctoral researcher, Berna Sozen.

Music by Johnny Woods on Buchla modular synthesizer, recorded live summer of 2020 outdoors in the mountains of New Mexico.

20% of this sale will be donated to the charity of scientists Zerincka-Goetz and Sozen's choosing.