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 […]
It’s a confusing time at the Vatican, which arguably has an international stem cell scandal of its own making on its hands. What the heck is going on? In an embarrassing move, they organized a stem cell conference for this year and then abruptly cancelled it, with the reason being that they had originally invited
Vatican flunks Pepsi Challenge on Stem Cells? Read More »
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 »
Many of you may have heard that there is a Vatican stem cell meeting . 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
What are the goals of the Vatican stem cell meeting and why no press releases so far? Read More »
In mid-November the Catholic Church, in fact the Vatican itself, will do something it has never done before in its very long existence. It will hold a conference on stem cells. Perhaps equally unusual and of interest is the fact that the basis for this conference is a $1 million (USD) gamble by the Vatican
More on the Vatican $1 million gamble on NeoStem and their upcoming conference in Rome Read More »
Why does it worry me that the Vatican is having a stem cell conference? One of the hallmarks of Democracy is separation of church and state. When states mix religion into politics and government, the results have during human history been disastrous. Equally dismal has been the relationship between religion and science. Ever since the
The Vatican Stem Cell Meeting…is mixing religion and science a good idea? Read More »
What a year 2020 was, but there was still plenty of great science, which continues now in 2021 including published research like today’s recommended pieces and there’s one thread on MSCs today. The Niche new look, more features, and a Medical Advisory Board for 2021 Before we get to the recommended reads, note that 2021
Recommended reads: MSCs, vision, endothelial cells, more Read More »
The stem cell field has puzzled on and off for years over a constellation of papers on purported stem cells including so-called VSEL and MUSE cells. Many of us haven’t been convinced that these are real stem cells. I see VSEL and MUSE fitting into a larger pattern of dubious stem cell claims including the STAP
STAP cell deja vu? 28 VSEL papers flagged by Bik Read More »
We kind of take for granted these days that embryonic stem cell research can proceed without any restrictions, at least at the federal level. However, in the early days of blogging here on The Niche the big debate and battle were over federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Things got very complicated and for
Lessons from when embryonic stem cell research was illegal Read More »