Month: June 2011

Thinking on your feet: practical suggestions for creating and using a standing workstation

You know how when people give you bad news they ask “Are you sitting down?” Since I’m going to give you some good news in this post, I ask you now as you are reading this, are you standing up? We are constantly bombarded with news stories about what is bad for us. Some of …

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Stem Cell Scientists KO’d in round one versus unproven clinics: where’s the FDA?

One of the greatest and most infuriating ironies of the stem cell-based regenerative medicine universe is that while the FDA strictly regulates the progress of therapy development by Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) and Geron and other legitimate companies, at the same time mysteriously the FDA essentially leaves completely unregulated the companies within the U.S. offering …

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Is Huntsman too normal to be the Republican nominee? What would he do on stem cells?

A week ago Jon Huntsman launched his campaign to be the next President of the United States (POTUS). The rumblings going around is that Huntsman, Obama’s former ambassador to China, is too smart and too normal to get the Republican nomination for POTUS. Huntsman even got an early and unexpected endorsement from Senate Majority Leader, …

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The anti-stem cell Crusade: how many lives will it cost?

During the Crusades almost a thousand years ago, millions of people were slaughtered predominantly in the name of spreading one religious belief. One could call it an extreme, lethal form of exerting the power of one belief, a sort of power-grabbing proselytizing using weapons such as swords. Those barbaric Crusades seem like a long time …

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Grading stem cell blogs: what is the best in the world?

We have posted before about how anti-stem cell folks seem to be uniquely talented and/or motivated to get their gospel out there, particularly when it comes to the Internet. According to Google search results, some of the top hits for “stem cell blog” are sites that are extremely anti-stem cell research and have little in …

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The Genomics Revolution: move over blood type, here comes your genotype

As I am writing this, a revolution in medicine and science is building up steam around the world called Genomics. Let me clue you in so you do not miss the boat on this dramatic change coming in our lives. Genomics means the study of genomes. A genome is the complete sequence of an organism’s DNA, …

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And the new leader of CIRM is…

The CIRM Board is meeting today and will decide on its future Chair via an election. There are two candidates, Jonathan Thomas (nominated by Bill Lockyer, the California state treasurer) and Frank Litvack, nominated by state controller, John Chang. Thomas is described as a Bond financier, while Litvack is an L.A. cardiologist and businessman with …

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Pastor: Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research

Dr. Ted Peters,  Lutheran pastor and Christian Scholar, has a new book out: Sacred Cells? Why Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research. Dr. Peters argues in his book and also at a recent Christian Scholars Conference at Pepperdine University that Christians should respect all sides of this argument and don’t just “have malice towards those …

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