12-17 SCIENCE

THE GREAT EMBRYO RESEARCH DEBATE

Scientists in Kyoto announced the other weak that they had found a working alternative to using human embryos to produce steam cells. The Kyoto University team first tested their theories on adult mice. The extracted skin cells from the mice and "reprogrammed" them to have the ability to transform into any other type of cell in the body. The team then went further in their experimentation and tested it on human genes. It worked! However, all this news is not for the best because now scientists are debating whether the transplant of stem cells into diseased patients will even lead to a cure. It will be years before scientists fully understand how to use stem cells to the degree of providing a cure. Most scientists admit that the great myth of stem cell cures is more fiction than it is sound scientific fact.

Newsweek. 3 December 2007. 52.