title: Break It To Make It: How Fracturing Sculpts Tissues and Organs
author: Clare Watson
contenttype: article
publication: Quanta Magazine
published: 2026-02-27T15:40:38+00:00
sourceurl: https://www.quantamagazine.org/break-it-to-make-it-how-fracturing-sculpts-tissues-and-organs-20260227/
word_count: 70
There’s a moment, just before the tight mass of cells that is a developing mouse embryo implants itself in the womb, that it all comes apart. Hundreds of tiny fluid-filled bubbles expand between each of the orb’s few dozen cells. The bubbles grow and press outward on cell membranes — and then, in a moment of fracture, pry them apart. Thin protein stands tether the cells together as the… Source