It is currently legal for the federal government in the U.S. to fund human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. However, that funding is in serious jeopardy. Someone today described it to me as “hanging by a thread”. A 3-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court is currently holding arguments on whether such funding should be […]

I’ve found myself in the middle of an international kerfuffle over stem cell research in Ireland related to my post commenting on an article (You can read that article here, but warning you have to pay a bit to read it) in The Daily Business Post by reporter Susan Mitchell of Ireland on the topic. The

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

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

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.

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