A new article out by Susan Mitchell covers the key elements of a brewing, serious conflict in Ireland over stem cells. You can read the piece here, but warning you have to pay to read it. Here in this blog post I analyze the situation and give important quotes from the article. A pro-adult stem …
I like many shows on the Discovery Channel. However, Discovery Channel just made a sad, anti-science sellout in their new series “Frozen Planet”. It’s no exaggeration to say that the producers of the series intentionally left out the heart of science from the show when it came to global warming. Why would they do that? It …
Discovery Channel sellout is victory for the anti-science crowd Read More »
In the biomedical sciences we do a huge number of experiments on cells grown in culture including human cell lines. Where do all these cells come from? It’s an important question to ask. I got my first job in science as a fairly low level technician working at UCSD in La Jolla and my main …
I love Picnic Day. Picnic Day is a celebration of everything about UC Davis, all of our fun and all of what makes UC Davis such a cool, unique place. A big part of Picnic Day is the Cal Aggie Band or Band-uh. One of my daughters and I were out for a walk tonight …
Picnic Day: A celebration of what makes UC Davis awesome! Read More »
The heat is rising in a push to deregulate dubious adult stem cell therapies and it is Republicans turning up the thermostat on this emerging pet issue of theirs. We’ve seen the Texas Medical Board passing weak rules for regulating adult stem cell therapies under pressure from Rick Perry and adult stem cell biotech, Celltex. …
Stem cell deregulation push is deadly serious threat to the field and patients Read More »
Being in academic science makes me wish for more hours in the day. There are so many demands on my time that time has become the most precious of commodities. In academia often times there is a drive to say “yes” to almost all requests that come your way. However, that is a recipe for …
If Mitt Romney, God forbid, were terminally ill suddenly and the only thing that could save him were embryonic stem cells (ESC), would he get the treatment? Or would he have faith that upon his natural and pure death that abstaining from Pepsi (oops, sorry, stem cells) he would go to the gates of heaven …
The leading cause of death in America and many other countries of the world is cardiovascular disease (CVD) including heart attacks and strokes. In fact, CVD kills and disables more people than most often top killers combined including cancer. The myth that CVD is a “man’s disease” only makes the situation worse as in reality CVD …
Transdifferentiation meets gene therapy to tackle heart disease Read More »
Long-time television and music personality, Dick Clark, has passed away at age 82 today. Growing up as a kid in the 1970s and 80s, I knew Dick Clark from American Bandstand and $20,000 pyramid, but more than that I knew him for how amazingly young he always looked. I was not a big fan of …
Lessons from Dick Clark about aging and stem cells Read More »
Is Vitamin D a miracle drug or a disappointment like almost all other vitamins? Just recently there was a piece saying that Vitamin D may reduce pain. Today there was another news article saying Vitamin D may protect men against more aggressive prostate cancer. You name the condition and Vitamin D is claimed to help with …
Vitamin D: is this supplement helpful or hype-ful? Read More »