Quietly, Adult Stem Cells (ASCs) continue to make more advances in therapeutic treatments, thanks to the recent breakthrough with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), in which differentiated human skin, adipose (fat), or other cells are induced into reverting into a pluripotent state that essentially mimics embryonic pluripotent stem cells. These iPSCs have recently been induced [...]

While Al Gore was in Europe, predicting that “the entire North Polarized cap will disappear in 5 years” due to global warming, the southern California desert was getting blanketed in snow.

Global-warming induced snow storm in southern California, 15 December 2008Photo © Julie Shropshire
Irony, thy name is Al Gore.
UPDATE: Thanks for the mention, Gateway Pundit.

The Vatican recently issued a statement on bioethical issues, entitled Dignitas Personae (The Dignity of the Person), which serves as the authoritative ruling for the Catholic Church in condemning, among other things, embryo-destructive stem-cell research and human cloning.
The foundational tenet for the ruling is, as astute readers may surmise, the inherent dignity of the human [...]

On the campaign trail over the weekend, Barack Obama tried to assuage the socially conservative democrats of Western Pennsylvania regarding his pro-abortion stance. He starts with the typical, liberal, stance when confronted by an admonition to stop abortions:
“This is a very difficult issue, and I understand sort of the passions on both sides of the [...]

There are lies, damn lies and anything uttered by Donn Rubin.
–Mark Twain, paraphrased
Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures (sic) chairman Donn Rubin has already proven himself to be a spin master, but his latest screed is downright slanderous.
In this op/ed piece (h/t Secondhand Smoke), Rubin lauds recent advancements in stem cell research, in which differentiated (adult) [...]

I got a very pleasant surprise today when I came home for lunch and found out that my pre-order of Gary Taubes’ new book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, had arrived!
Here is the publisher’s description:

In this groundbreaking book, the result of seven years of research in every science connected with the impact of nutrition on health, [...]

From this HealthFinder article comes news that scientists have identified stem cells from the testes of mice – and that these stem cells demonstrate pluripotency:
U.S. researchers say they’ve successfully reprogrammed adult stem cells from the testes of male mice into a wide variety of cell types, including functional blood vessels, contractile cardiac tissue, and brain [...]

Despite alarmists’ cries about the shrinking arctic ice cap, Antarctica just set a new record for most total ice extent (links in original; emphasis added):
While the Antarctic Peninsula area has warmed in recent years and ice near it diminished during the Southern Hemisphere summer, the interior of Antarctica has been colder and ice elsewhere has [...]

About a week ago, I wrote about this Post-Dispatch article, written by Matt Franck. I discussed the perceived bias in the article with respect to Amendment 2 and the efforts of supporters of the HJR11 anti-cloning measure the article discussed.
As I try to do whenever I discuss someone’s writing, I emailed the author to let [...]

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch today reported that MO House Bill HJR11 was killed in committee yesterday. Unfortunately, the P-D could not see past its own bias in order to report accurately on the measure. Ironically, in order to spin the truth, the article exposes the hypocrisy and deception of Amendment 2.
To begin with, take the [...]

First, they tried to re-define “embryonic” as “early”. Next, they tried to re-define “cloning” as “implantation”. Now, they’re trying to re-define “cure”.

Adult stem cells have thus far produced at least 72 human treatments. It appears that one of the latest tactics of the pro-Amendment 2 Coalition is to refute that fact (emphasis added):

Winship says there [...]

Last night, I attended the Christians Against Human Cloning Rally, held at Life Christian Church and sponsored by Vision America/Missourians for Truth. Speakers included Shao-Chun Chang (professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis), Charles Drury (Hotel Developer), Archbishop Raymond Burke, Rich Bott (executive vice president, Bott Radio Network), Rick Scarborough (President, Vision America), [...]

Just how safe is it for women to donate eggs for SCNT research?

Apparently, the Primacy of Awesome (who can’t seem to follow blog-linking protocol well enough to trackback to my original post), considers me to have made a humorous attempt at reasoning.

To set the stage, from this post at Mary Meets Dolly, I had quoted this article (link appears not to be working at the moment), as [...]

At least, that’s what happened for Jason Kotecki of the Escape Reality blog:
A lot of really good scientific information is out there, if you look for it. And yet I’m still left scratching my head. If adult cells have a proven track record for making people better, why all the hullabaloo about the embryonic incarnations? [...]

Mary Meets Dolly parses a despicable attempt at rationalization of the inhumanity of human embryos by David Holcberg and Alex Epstein of the Ayn Rand Institute.

The authors use several tactics. Here is the first:
But embryos used in embryonic stem cell research are manifestly not human beings–not in any rational sense of the term. These embryos [...]

An umbilical cord blood stem cell treatment appears to have yielded positive results in treating Multiple Sclerosis.

The UK resident traveled to Rotterdam for the treatment, which the report inexplicably refers to as “controversial” and claims is “banned” in the UK.

Also noteworthy, the report claims that the MS Society (UK) opposes the procedure. I found this, [...]

Dennis York lays out the reality concerning Alzheimer’s and potential stem-cell related treatments.

Isn’t it amazing – coincidental, even – that every single instance of realized promise of stem cells have come from adult stem cells? Yet, this KGO-TV (San Jose) story finds it “surprising” that a Lupus-curing procedure comes from adult stem cells [emphasis added]:

We’ve all heard a lot about the promise of stem cells in medicine. [...]

So much mis-information, so little time…

Two teams of Boston scientists announced Tuesday that they will attempt to creating the world’s first cloned human embryonic stem cells.
Technically speaking, stem cells, by definition, clone themselves. Stem cells are self-replicating.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital researchers said they will try to develop a powerful new tool [...]

From the Cape Cod Times [emphasis added]:

Doctors at Nanshan Hospital in Shenzhen, China, gave Jonathan five injections of 10 million umbilical cord stem cells each into his spinal column to try to trigger a healing process in his damaged brain cells. He has a condition known as hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, or HE, from a near-drowning [...]

From the State Register-Journal in Springfield, IL, comes the story of this courageous young woman who will be speaking in favor of Adult Stem Cell (ASC) research, and in opposition to Embryonic Stem Cell (ESC) research:

Jacki said she wants to help other patients benefit from adult stem cells.
She said she is going to Washington to [...]

The Missouri Roundtable blog reports that German scientists have acquired pluripotent stem cells from an adult mouse testis, the discovery of the presence of multi-lineage stem cells in amniotic fluid, and the development of a technique to acquire in large numbers blastomere-like stem cells (BLSCs), which have been demonstrated to be able to differentiate into [...]

From Medical News Today comes this interesting report that could perhaps avert some of the ethical controversy surrounding the use of IVF embryos:
A research team from Columbia has, for the first time, identified criteria through which embryo death can be confirmed. The implications for stem cell research are huge – by confirmation of embryo death, [...]

From Bioethics.net comes this report on the discovery of clusters of stem cells in the heart:
A team of US researchers has discovered the “home” of stem cells in the heart, lending credence to the idea that the heart has the capacity to repair itself. The finding raises the possibility that these cardiac stem cells could [...]