I have a Plumeria plant in my office in my lab. When I came in today (Monday), I found the Plumeria in bloom. The flowers were giving off a very beautiful scent reminiscent of Hawaii. (update: note you may enjoy my “Scientist in the Garden” series). Wow! Holy cow, how did that happen? Ok, back […]
Tips to get an indoor Plumeria to bloom Read More »
Humans have big brains, right? In fact, they are downright supersized. But is that always such a good thing? As it turns out, no. Size matters, but bigger is not always better for brains at least. When I was in high school, my biology teacher had us do the requisite frog dissection and offered extra
When it comes to brains, bigger is not always better Read More »
A month ago I did a very widely read piece on cosmetic applications of stem cell technologies in the U.S. called “from boobs to baldness”. Many cosmetics websites asked for permission to run the piece and it was re-run in a number of languages around the world as well. It is clear there is big
From boobs to baldness 2.0: Cosmetic stem cell clinics proliferate Read More »
There is a bill being considered here in the U.S. called the “Research Works Act”. This is without a doubt one of the dumbest bills I have ever heard of in my life. The bill is bad for science and bad for America. If passed it would be an epic fail for America. Why? This
The Research Works Act Would Be An Epic Fail Read More »
Why do people have such a big brain compared to other animals? Vertebrate embryonic development is a highly conserved process, particularly in the earliest phases. (note: you may find this September 2020 post on regulation of bee brain size to be interesting.) A wide variety of vertebrate animals including humans start out with embryonic body plans
Why is the human brain super-sized? Read More »
They say politics makes strange bedfellows….remember the Witherspoon Council? These are the fellows who are the BFFs of the two scientists suing to stop federal funding of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. They also wrote a large, very stodgy tome about stem cell research, in which they mentioned me and this blog…kinda implying we
Witherspoon Council, Komen, and Fox News 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
Komen Foundation Betrays Women Read More »
There has been a lot of excitement and media attention over the arrests by the FBI and the indictments of several people on charges related to alleged unlawful stem cell practices. Keep in mind that all these folks are innocent until proven guilty. Anyhow, you might wonder how the FBI got its info, etc? Was
The stem cell informer Read More »
There was another federal indictment just handed down that alleges that one Francisco Morales (aka Dr. Frank Morales) broke the law with stem cells. Allegedly he took umbilical cords (telling patients that they would be used for medical research), facilitated isolation of stem cells, and shipped them out of state to be used in dubious
Indicted alleged stem cell predator Morales & Margolis: any links? Read More »
Yesterday Geron announced it would be immediately stopping its stem cell research program. What does this mean? While this program has (or should I say “had”) a number of elements, at its heart was of course its hESC-based OPC drug (GRNOPC1) for spinal cord injury, which was in an FDA-approved Phase I Clinical Trial that
The day after Geron news: a realistic outlook for the stem cell field Read More »