Here's a mind-blowing recent development in medical science: scientists seem able to create stem cells from ordinary skin cells, rather than plucking them from embryos. Can you imagine the possibilities for stem cell research, which, until now, has been crippled by ethical controversy? (Curse you, moral upbringing!)
If this works, the you're-killing-an-embryo moral opposition becomes moot. YET, somehow, I get the sense that most opponents would still be very reluctant to change their view. Even I feel like there must be some other contention point over stem cell research, and I was behind it 100% when we were murdering babies in petri dishes. Call it persistence of belief or perseverance or whatever...I know there's some cognitive term for it that I can't think of at the moment. Then again, maybe it's just the lingering need to explain away a deep-seated fear of technology, the future, and the singularity. (by the by, did you hear? Ray Kurzweil is making a movie.)
Stem Cell Breakthrough Is Like 'Turning Lead Into Gold' (Wired)
New Stem Cell Method Could Ease Ethical Concerns (NYT)
Anyway, this is one science-in-the-media story that I really hope isn't just hype!
Tuesday, November 20
Holy Crap-ola
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5 comments:
from what i got about it, it's pretty much trangenics applied to humans. i'm not against stem cell research, be it from embryos or adult skin cells, but on the long run, what does the DNA strand they insert in the skin cell to allow it to reach the plaethora of possibilities of a embryonary stem cell will cause?
Well, it's true that it's still early in the research process -- I think most reports are just hinting at the potential the research holds.
Also, they have stated that before these skin-derived stem cells can be practically used, they do have to figure out a way to make the inserted genes delete themselves. Baby steps.
yeah... we did get some coverage about this over here, but they never mentioned the self-deleting stuff. so i might have got it a bir off. sorry.. maybe i should surf for the info, specially with links already on my face.. :)
Haha I actually meant to mention it in my post...just slipped my mind! Oh and thanks for all the comments!
nah, don't warry..i was eager to find interesting things to do online... so now i have a few new bookmarks on my browser... (yours included) :D
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