I know. I know. Scientists are not supposed to publicly talk about the question of when life begins and about death, but these are kind of important things to talk about and think about, don’t you think? I do. So here goes…. It’s been a very intense, crazy few weeks for me and for many …
U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney is reaching out to the evangelical community here in the U.S. and there’s a stem cell connection. Apparently he’s been doing this for a half dozen years…. How’s that going? What do they talk about? Romney, himself of the Mormon faith, has been working hard to convince American evangelicals that …
Radical Islam, stem cells, & Romney Mormon faith Read More »
What are the top 10 stem cell events of a crazy 2012 to date? Based on this wild list in just over 3 months, I would say 2012 overall will prove to be a memorable one. 1. Celltex and McGee versus University of Minnesota’s Turner and Elliott. Glenn McGee, at one point both editor of American …
Stem cell stories of a crazy 2012 so far including Celltex Read More »
Does the Vatican view the American pro-lifers as a bunch of wacky extremists? An article today certainly suggest this. What’s going on? The Vatican, Catholics more generally, and “pro-lifers”, as designated by the Catholic website CatholicCulture.org are still apparently very much at odds over a now cancelled Vatican conference on stem cells that would have included …
The Vatican has reportedly killed its planned upcoming stem cell conference. What’s the scoop? Last year the Vatican had an invitation only stem cell conference at which embryonic stem cell researchers, who are presumably going to Hell, and discussion of embryonic stem cell research were banned. I did a number of posts on this 2011 …
Vatican in turmoil as it kills its upcoming stem cell conference Read More »
We have another Vatican stem cell meeting coming up this spring. This meeting raises some extremely important questions and complex issues at the interface of science, religion, philosophy and ethics. From the perspective of scientists, an important issue is whether (assuming one is invited) to attend such a meeting and if one does attend, is …
Vatican Stem Cell Meeting 2.0: from stem cells to prison cells to hell? Read More »
What’s the Witherspoon Institute? Most of you know about the 2 scientists who for their own reasons want to kill embryonic stem cell (ESC) research and with it the hopes for millions of people. Relatively new on most of our radar screens, however, is an extremist right-wing “think tank” called The Witherspoon Institute, which I …
Last year around this time I presented my first stem cell awards of the year, in that case for 2010. You can see whom I thought deserved awards here. Now it is time for our 2011 stem cell awards. These awards reflect my opinions and those not mentioned will hopefully forgive me as there is …
Geron abruptly announced today that it will no longer pursue its spinal cord injury trial using oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) derived from hESC. Several sources indicate that Geron is hoping to find a buyer of its drug for this trial, GRNOPC1 and the hope is that the trial could be rescued in a sense. Why …
Rumors flying on Geron, ACT, CIRM and the stem cell field Read More »
Today the Vatican held the first day of its adult stem cell conference. Embryonic stem cells remained not surprisingly uninvited. This conference is an unprecedented event in the thousands of years of history of The Church so not surprisingly many people are very interested in the event and trying to understand what it means. Interestingly, …
What are the goals of the Vatican stem cell meeting and why no press releases so far? Read More »