The Download: frozen egg transportation, and Roblox’s expressive avatars

My eggs were flying economy class. 12 of my cryopreserved oocytes, four straws of three eggs each, had a window seat, while my dog and I were in seat 8D. They were in a metal suitcase next to Paolo, the man who was going to take them from Bologna, Italy, to Madrid, Spain, where I was going to have in-vitro fertilization. Gametes and embryos are shipped around the world as part of a booming fertility sector. Fertility treatment needs increase each year as people have children later in life. Tens of thousands of patients can access this medical care if it is not available in their own country because of legal restrictions or prohibitive pricing.

It would have taken me several more years to save up for a cycle in New York if I'd frozen eggs in Bologna and Madrid. I paid for storage costs for six and four years and was ready to have a baby. All my eggs were put in a single basket. The full story is available to read.

You can read more.

• How Silicon Valley hatched a plan to turn blood into human eggs. A well-connected startup company is trying to rewrite the rules of reproduction. Read the full story.
• Trans men’s eggs have been matured in the lab—and could help them have children. A new technique means eggs can be grown from the ovaries of transgender men, even after years of testosterone therapy. Read the full story.
• Inside the race to make human sex cells in the lab. Scientists might soon be able to create eggs and sperm from skin and blood cells. What will that mean? Read the full story.

There is about to be more expression in Roblox's avatars.

At its annual Roblox Developer Conference last week, the platform announced that it will soon allow users to give their avatars facial expressions that are similar to the player's own. The update would make it possible for users to smile, wink, or suck their breath, and theiravatar would mimic them. With the same results, eyes, heads, and eyebrows could move.

The online game platform attracts more than 50 million users every day. The rich, varied virtual worlds created on the site have been considered a progenitor of what we might see and experience in the metaverse with opportunities for connection with other people.

Soon, Roblox says, users will be able to speak directly with other people in the game. The changes may blend our real-world experience with that of the metaverse and make us more like ourselves. The full story is available to read.

Tanya is a person.