How could there be a nose on top of head? We all have heard the expression “eyes on the back of one’s head”, but a nose on top of one’s head? What the heck? A Chinese doctor has apparently grown a new nose on top of a patient’s forehead. The patient had his nose damaged […]
Doc grows new nose on top of head Read More »
A team at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel led by Jacob Hanna reports today near perfect reprogramming efficiency to make induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by eliminating a single factor called Mbd3 from the cellular equation. On first glance, the Nature article (Rais, et al.) seems to be all about boosting cellular reprogramming efficiency to close
100% reprogramming efficiency reports Jacob Hanna Read More »
Are all scientists as atheists? Definitely not. I confess.I am a scientist and I am not an atheist. Uh oh! Am I asking to be burned at the stake….er, over the lab Bunsen burner? Why is there such a persistent myth that scientists must be atheists? Or is it that good scientists must be atheists?
The myth of scientists as atheists Read More »
When it comes to science communication or “scicomm”, how are scientists doing these days? Scientists want to stay up to speed on all the latest technological developments whether it is new equipment or new methods. To not stay up to speed on these techno innovations would be a huge mistake as a scientist. You might
How to avoid being an anachronism on scicomm Read More »
¿Qué son las células madre? What does this mean? What are stem cells is ‘¿Qué son las células madre?’ in Spanish (2024 update: note that this post is part of our stem cells not lost in translation project: please see here for 34 other languages. This post also addresses another common question, “what are stem
¿Qué son las células madre? Read More »
Let’s putting on our “thinking caps”….er, extra brains, get our geek on, and have some fun imagining where stem cell technology may lead us in the coming century. Unhappy with the one brain you have? Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a 2nd one too? A new one? Researchers have grown mini brain-like structures from
What would you do with an extra brain? Read More »
There is a lot of talk about cloning celebrities so could we be seeing John Lennon again in the form of a clone? If a Canadian dentist named Michael Zuk has his way, the late Beatle may be back. In his quest to get back Lennon, Zuk reportedly purchased an old molar that once had
Imagine Cloning John Lennon From Old Molar Read More »
Was Einstein wrong on his definition of insanity? “Insanity”, said Einstein, “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But in science, how sane is it to expect experiments to give precisely the same results? How big a problem is irreproducibility in science? Experiments on that question have given variable
Was Einstein Wrong About Insanity? Read More »
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Duane Roth, the Vice-Chair of the California Stem Cell Agency CIRM and the leader of CONNECT, an organization promoting entrepreneurship in the San Diego area, died yesterday. Roth had been in a serious solo cycling accident on July 21. Roth had a long, successful career in biotech including having founded Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. He was
Tribute to CIRM Vice-Chair, Duane Roth Read More »