1 2 ORIGINAL ARTICLE 4 In-vitro gametogenesis on YouTube – Epistemological 5 performances from Strasbourg and Los Angeles 6 7 8 Noe ´mie Merleau-Ponty 9 Department of Sociology (ReproSoc), Univeristy of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 12 12 13 Noe´mieMerleau-Ponty is a permanent researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. Her research 14 is concerned with biotechnologies of human reproduction and regeneration. In France, India and the UK, she looks at 15 the making of social relations through the making of science, as well as at the intertwining of national contexts and 16 global dynamics. Trained as a social anthropologist, she is also inspired by feminist science and technology studies. 17 Although she primarily works ethnographically, she continues to develop interdisciplinary collaborations between the 18 social and life sciences. 20 21 Abstract YouTube hosts two records of interest for those interested in how human-stem-cell-derived gametes are made: one from 22 the USA and one from France. Human-stem-cell-derived gametes, sometimes called ‘artificial gametes’ or ‘synthetic gametes’, are 23 the result of in-vitro gametogenesis (IVG). IVG is a technology in the making that attempts to create oocytes and spermatozoa from 24 embryonic cells or skin cells. This article presents some elements of these videos in written form, and asks what information is pub- 25 licly available to ‘think with’, and what is not, when it comes to imagining the future of human reproduction. Focusing on the staging 26 of science, this article argues that these videos represent ways of understanding and interrogating science, and display epistemo- 27 logical performances. The comparison is helpful to analyse how a shared global bioscientific authority is valued in these two loca- 28 tions, pointing at areas ’back stage’ that the social sciences can illuminate. 29 30 Ó 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ 31 licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 32 KEYWORDS: in-vitro gametogenesis, France, social sciences, USA, biology, assisted reproductive technology 33 34 Introduction 35 YouTube hosts two records of interest for those interested 36 in how human-stem-cell-derived gametes are made: 37 ’Same-sex reproduction using stem-cell technology’ 38 (Natarajan, 2017) and ’La reproduction de demain: gametes 39 artificiels [Tomorrow’s reproduction: artificial gametes]’ 40 (Forum Europe ´en de Bioe ´thique, 2018). Human-stem-cell- 41 derived gametes, sometimes called ‘artificial gametes’ or 42 ‘synthetic gametes’, are the result of in-vitro gametogene- 43 sis (IVG), a technology in the making that attempts to create 44 oocytes and spermatozoa from embryonic cells or skin cells. 45 Two discussions about the reproductive future that this 46 technology previews have been recorded: one in Los Ange- 47 les, USA and one in Strasbourg, France. Anyone with an 48 internet connection and an understanding of English or https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbms.2020.12.001 1472-6483/Ó 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Reproductive BioMedicine and Society Online (2020) xxx, xxx– xxx www.sciencedirect.com www.rbmsociety.com RBMS 148 No. of Pages 9, Model 6+ 21 December 2020 Please cite this article as: Noe ´mieMerleau-Ponty, In-vitro gametogenesis on YouTube – Epistemological performances from Strasbourg and Los Angeles, , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbms.2020.12.001 Uncorrected Proof