There is no time to ramble about all of these stories. Not so many, so fast. So as you let yet another hypnotic green-tinted image of stem cell research (above) wash over you, satisfy yourself with some bite-size nuggets:
The Korean matter is not going to cause a backlash against stem cell research [wait, or, maybe it already has?]. And in fact South Korea may very well keep Hwang Woo-suk on as head of the effort, but not until the crack bioethics team reviews the scandal. No matter how Hwang’s own situation works out, scientists now get it that they’d better start defending the integrity of this work and are, um, lining up to defend the integrity of this work.
Thank goodness Harvard is opening up what by my count is their fourth applied ethics program (someone needs to tell these people that once the school starts a program with Dan Brock at the helm the need for other clone programs decreases…).
Anyway back to the nutty world of pluripotency: the ongoing battle to keep state-based stem cell money from being raised and disbursed continues. Apparently not in Connecticut, where $100 million will be given out over ten years. But in California, as we’ve noted, where the courts have locked up disbursement for the immediate future. And even in Arizona, where stem cell opponents the Alliance Defense Fund have argued that the proposed ballot for raising stem cell money there is not good enough because it doesn’t say “CLONE” in bright flashing letters. And if the money comes through, there is still no guarantee anybody will move their labs to get it, at least not to Illinois, although bad law is certainly keeping some scientists out of states like Missouri.
But this stuff is still extremely interesting to do and has created whole new kinds of careers in science.