A little more than two years ago, a junior scientist walked into Paola Arlotta's Harvard office with a set of mesmerizing images and asked if she wanted to see what the old brain organoids look like. 

Arlotta, a developmental neurobiologist, turned in surprise. "You analyzed them?" she exclaimed. 

Irene Faravelli's face fell. She had, but now she wondered if that had been a grave mistake. Arlotta assured her everything was fine. In fact it was great. "I was actually pleased that somebody had the courage to do this," Arlotta recalled to STAT in a recent interview.