I’ve been in the stem cell field for a long time. I’ve seen a lot of wild, unexpected, even crazy things. Running this blog is a big reason. However, I have never seen anything like the wild video (see below) with a sock puppet (manned by comedienne Cheryl Ling) erupting with a profanity-laced tirade about stem […]
The fields of science related to DNA have for a long time been gene-centric. By this I mean that most scientists working in these areas have focused their attention and their efforts on the genes that make the proteins and RNAs that are the workers of the cell. What’s left over that wasn’t genes mainly
The stem cell world is getting more complicated. There are more good guys and bad guys out there than ever. In the Old West, at least as portrayed in the old movies I used to watch as a kid, the bad guy often had a black hat and the good guy a white hat. In
Who’s who? How to tell the stem cell good guys from the bad guys Read More »
I love Yiddish. The words sound so rich and the combinations of vowels makes Yiddish a far more interesting and fun language than English. As someone who is half-Jewish, I wish I knew Yiddish. While I don’t, I do often use Yiddish words that are firmly entrenched in spoken and written English as well as
What is your favorite pop culture Yiddish word? Take our poll Read More »
There has been a lot of attention about a Sutter clinical trial to use adult stem cells for the treatment of autism. I did a post on it here. After more reading, I’m scratching my head even more about the hypothesis at the heart of that trial, but I’m no autism expert. Emily Willingham, who knows
I’m a big fan of stem cells. I’m a researcher, but also a patient advocate and educator. I’m someone who favors researching adult, embryonic, and induced pluripotent stem cells (aka iPS cells). They all are worth pursuing and in my opinion have the future potential to be an ethical-basis for helping millions of patients who
Adult stem cells: why I’m really excited, but don’t favor shortcuts Read More »
I was interviewed for the cool UK pod blog, Pod Delusion. Listen here to our frank discussion on stem cells covering most of the most interesting and controversial topics.
I watched some parts of the big speeches at this year’s Republican Convention in Tampa and was struck by a number of things running the gamut from good to bad to ugly. I think Mrs. Romney did a good job on her speech. She came across as likable and someone I can imagine as a
The good, the bad, and the ugly of the Republican Convention Read More »
What’s gone wrong with the New York Times Science section? One of my dad’s favorite things in life was sitting down on Tuesdays with the New York Times Science Section and a cup of coffee. It was a true pleasure and one that I have inherited from him, although now I mostly read it online.
NY Times Science section suppressing discussion? Read More »
Sometimes it can get bewildering to try to understand all the different kinds of stem cells. What’s the difference? What makes embryonic stem cells different than adult stem cells than induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells? I can give you technical definitions and you can learn more here in my post “What are stem cells?”, but
The Stem Cell Olympics: a fun way to understand different kinds of stem cells Read More »