Does the Planned Parenthood icon at left send chills down your spine, because according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and most Republican Leaders, it should scare you greatly. An opinion piece today in the WSJ provides an extreme perspective on the debacle in which the Komen Foundation last week dropped support for Planned Parenthood, …
Refuting the WSJ’s propaganda piece on Planned Parenthood Read More »
Interestingly, the Komen Foundation appears open to funding human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. The latest report from Science includes a quote from Komen that denies any changes in funding policy for research and suggests they have not ruled out funding such research: Contrary to circulating online reports, Komen has not “de-funded” any grantee based on human embryonic stem …
Komen Foundation open to funding human embryonic stem cell research Read More »
The use of stem cells for cosmetics and cosmetic procedures is exploding even while many important questions remain. How legitimate are these stem cell cosmetic products and procedures? Are they safe and effective? What kinds of medical conditions are they being used to treat? I also recently did a post on another area of medicine …
Birds can amazing creatures. Around noon today I was down in the Mt. Diablo, CA area for one of my daughter’s soccer games. The soccer field was in the hills and effortlessly soaring above the field for much of the game was the bird whose picture is above. The wingspan looked to be about 6 …
How can a vulture or other birds be so majestic? Read More »
The Komen foundation has had a rough couple weeks, huh? First, it said it would not longer provide support to Planned Parenthood under pressure from anti-choice extremists, some of whom appear to have infiltrated Komen itself. Predictably, there was a firestorm of criticism that has damaged Komen and arguably may have actually been quite helpful …
Lessons from the Komen Fiasco and Propaganda Wars Read More »
Remember that Witherspoon report on stem cells earlier this week that was supposed to be an authoritative look at embryonic stem cell research in its 100+ pages? I posted my own thoughts on it here including some criticisms but also some surprising areas of agreement between this blog and them, even though they cited this …
Witherspoon word cloud is surprisingly revealing Read More »
The Susan G. Komen Foundation has done so much good over the years in its fight against breast cancer that it is particularly disturbing to learn that they have betrayed women. Betray is a strong word and I don’t use it lightly, but I think it is appropriate in this case. To me the pink …
Do we still need iPS cells if transdifferentiation is so cool? Wait, how did we get to the point that people are asking me that extreme question? When iPS cells were first introduced to the world by Shinya Yamanaka, who I think will win the Nobel Prize sometime in the next few years, some folks went …
Transdifferentiation does not make iPS cells obsolete Read More »
Lately I have been critical of an ultra-conservative political think tank-like foundation called the Witherspoon Institute. They have recently joined the federal lawsuit as friends of the plaintiffs suing to stop federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The Witherspoon Council has just published a 100+ page report on stem cells in the very conservative, somewhat obscure …
When I make the argument as I have repeatedly on this blog and in other contexts that as a whole the Republican Party and its leadership are anti-science, one of the counter arguments fired back at me is that Obama is himself anti-science. My initial reaction to this “Obama is anti-science” argument is somewhat visceral, …