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While scientists hotly debate the existence of cancer stem cells, three related new studies, all conducted on mice, provide some supporting evidence. Stem cells are the foundation for healthy cell growth in the body. Some researchers believe that malignant stem cells also exist—so-called cancer stem cells that generate tumors and resist treatment by simply re-growing afterward. "Cancer stem cells are still controversial, but with progress in studies like these, it's less about whether they exist and more about 'what does this mean?'" said Dr. Max Wicha, director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, who is familiar with the...

A Chicago-based scientist says he’s grateful to U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk for siding with legislation that backs stem cell research. Kirk on Monday called for congressional action to codify an executive order on the research issued by President Barack Obama in 2009. (snip) The Illinois Republican says, if senior Democratic senators choose not to move the stem cell legislation in this Congress, he will.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Two scientists involved in the lawsuit that has blocked federal funding for embryonic stem cell research say they acted because of ethical objections. Dr. James L. Sherley and Dr. Theresa Deisher both say embryonic stem cell research is morally objectionable and unlikely to produce promised treatments or cures. "We have a responsibility and are taught to do ethical research," Sherley told The Wall Street Journal. "This is impacting the quality of science in this country." Many scientists see embryonic stem cell research as a path to treat a range of diseases because the cells can...

White House memos from 1997, when Elena Kagan was a top domestic policy advisor to President Clinton, show that Kagan -- nominated to the Supreme Court by President Obama -- recommended that the Clinton administration permit cloning of human embryos for research purposes. Writing just months after Scottish researchers had announced the birth of a cloned sheep, Kagan and another Clinton aide recommended that the president announce a ban on cloning that would lead to the birth of human infants, but emphasized that the policy "would not ban the creation of cloned embryos for research purposes.

In what may seem more like a Hollywood science-fiction plot, as in the forthcoming movie "Splice," lawmakers are trying to prevent scientists from combining human and animal embryos to make "human-animal hybrids." In "Splice," two scientists defy ethical boundaries and splice together human and animal DNA to create a new organism, also known as a chimera.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATHVaccines made with fetal cells causing autism?Exclusive: Jill Stanek looks at potential link between disorder, injections Posted: April 28, 20101:00 am Eastern By Jill Stanek EPA researchers publishing a study in the Feb. 16 issue of Environmental Science & Technology were "surprise[ed]" to find a worldwide jump in the incidence of autism beginning in 1988. Thus, the study concluded, "Although the debate about the nature of increasing autism continues, the potential for this increase to be real and involve exogenous environmental stressors exists." According to the Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute, 1988 was...

3 Billion wasted dollars. No cures. No treatments. California’s Prop. 71 initiative that pushed $3 billion in funding towards embryonic stem cell research five years ago has failed. The program promised to release cures and treatments held up by President Bush’s stupidity. There have been plenty of advancements including treatments to illness using adult stem cells. Even the Catholic church is a supporter of stem cell research, which many find completely unbelievable since they do not understand the difference between “stem cells” and “embryonic stem cells.”

Albany, N.Y., Jun 14, 2009 / 05:48 pm (CNA).- New York’s Empire State Stem Cell Board (ESSCB) decided on Thursday to commit funds to pay women to have their eggs harvested for embryo research. A member of the panel’s ethics board charged that the move was a “gross exploitation” of poor women and did not take into account the procedure’s health risks. There was reportedly no period of public comment for the board’s decision. Fr. Thomas Berg, a member of the ESSCB’s Ethics Committee and Executive Director of the Westchester Institute, criticized the board.“Without any involvement from the public,...

Some research advocates and scientists are upset that techniques they support would get no federal money. Many scientists hoped President Obama would end what they saw as the politicization of embryonic stem cell research. They thought all Bush administration funding bans would vanish, easing the way for unimpeded research that could yield interventions for physicians to use in treating everything from Parkinson's disease to diabetes. But those hopes may be running into political reality.The National Institutes of Health in April proposed overturning some Bush-era restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research while leaving others in place. The rules would...

Ron Reagan is the direct namesake of the man whom many on the right consider to be “The Greatest American Hero.” Much to their dismay he has spent his broadcasting career taking aim at the very politicians who have sought to attach themselves to his father’s (the late President Ronald Reagan) conservative legacy in order to justify everything from extreme corporate deregulation to the war in Iraq. For decades Ron Reagan has forged a path that embraces left wing ideals and touts science and progression over alleged antiquated religious rhetoric, a position that infuriates the Republican Party and warms liberals...

We thought we'd heard some wild diet tips floating around health-obsessed Hollywood. But this takes the cake. According to MomLogic.com, a woman
 named Chrissy Schilling had her first baby over the weekend. And she and her sister celebrated by cooking and serving up the placenta. They put it on pasta and into a panini sandwich and posted some photos of the meals on a Facebook page

. According to Chrissy's sister Kathy Schilling's recommendations and recipe,
 the placenta -- full of lingering blood, vitamins, hormones -- is nourishing for the baby during pregnancy, but the nutrients are also good for moms...

Recent evidence that Druids possibly committed cannibalism and ritual human sacrifice—perhaps on a massive scale—add weight to ancient Roman accounts of Druidic savagery, archaeologists say.After a first century B.C. visit to Britain, the Romans came back with horrific stories about these high-ranking priests of the Celts, who had spread throughout much of Europe over a roughly 2,000-year period.

Last winter, two female Komodo dragons at separate zoos in England gave their keepers big surprises. With no contact from any male, each of the giant lizards laid a clutch of viable eggs, some of which hatched healthy young (SN: 12/23/06, p. 403). The events made the news because they were the first known examples of the species reproducing by the asexual process of parthenogenesis, or virgin birth. SELF-STARTER. A woman's eggs keep a spare set of chromosomes inside a small pouch called a polar body (arrow) until a sperm delivers the paternal set. Scientists can spur the egg to...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has drawn guffaws from the pro-life community for comments saying that embryonic stem cell research, which involves the destruction of days-old human embryos, is a "gift from God." Her remarks came after the House approved a bill to force Americans to fund it. "Science is a gift of God to all of us, and science has taken us to a place that is biblical in its power to cure... And that is embryonic stem cell research," Pelosi said.Her comments produced an immediate reaction from pro-life groups, including Tony Perkins the head...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stem cells will be at the top of the agenda for the U.S. Senate when it returns on Tuesday with supporters of the research hoping they can change the president's mind on the issue and opponents hoping to have a say about their stand. The Senate will consider two bills, one virtually identical to a bill vetoed by President George W. Bush last year that would have expanded and encouraged federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. The other is a compromise measure worked out by Republicans Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Norm Coleman of...

Embryonic and adult stem cells offer similar protection against neurodegenerative disease, according to a landmark study in mice which has achieved a number of firsts with human stem cells. For the first time, rodents genetically predisposed to disease lived longer and healthier lives after receiving injections of the human cells, researchers claim. “We have been talking about stem cells for a decade and no one had cured anything with stem cells before this,” comments Eva Mezey, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, US, who was not involved in the work. In the new study, Evan...

I must admit, it made me happy as a lark to get mentioned in Karri Compton's review of Light at the Edge of Darkness yesterday: Andrea Graham's "Frozen Generation" explores the possibility of technology bringing frozen fetuses to term artificially, resulting in humans being used for spare parts. One woman tries to save as many babies as possible by smuggling them away and saving them from an uncertain future. Bravo to Karri, and everyone else who has found a way to summarize the plot without mentioning abortion or racism. Honestly, with the possible exception of Cyn's description (the line in...

Opening shot So the Democratic Party is reaching out to evangelical Christians, which at first glance seems absurd. What does the party of Darwin, abortion, special rights for gays and sin triumphant have to offer those who live their lives as the good Lord intended? Seems absurd, that is, until you start to tote up what conservative Christianity has really gotten for its loyal support of the Republican Party over the years. Abortion remains constrained but unbanned. Gays enjoy greater acceptance as actual human beings year by year. The twin shams, creationism and intelligent design, are slapped down at every...

Last Updated: Wednesday, 23 August 2006, 17:12 GMT 18:12 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version 'Ethical' stem cell lines created The scientists removed single cells from the embryos Human embryonic stem cell lines have been generated without embryos being destroyed, according to researchers.A US team created stem cell lines by removing single cells from embryos, a process that left them intact, they report in the journal Nature. At present, growing this type of stem cell results in embryo destruction. The researchers say their findings may remove some of the ethical barriers to this field and provide a...