ASC and Lung Injury

From Science Daily, adult stem cells used to treat lung injury in mice.

ESC and Gametes

An interesting article from Science Daily.

"And yet deleting or increasing the expression of genes in the womb to understand why is both impossible and unethical."

Good thing it's impossible (for now), because we know ethics is no barrier for ESC researchers.

"Humans have a unique reproductive system"

That's an interesting point in passing. I thought we were like all the other animals...

I'd really like to know what they believe is ethical or unethical. Because the details of their experiment are exactly what they just said would be unethical "in the womb". As if, being translated 3 feet to the left suddenly makes what they're doing ethical.

• "In the current study, the researchers treated human embryonic stem cells with proteins known to stimulate germ cell formation" (emphasis added)
  
• "They then used a technique called RNA silencing to examine how blocking the expression of each of three DAZ family members in the embryonic stem cells affected germ cell development" (emphasis added)
  

This is not a treatment for human disease (which is the most common defense of ESC). This is a blind experiment - let's see what happens. It's not the first time.

More on Mary

I need to go back and say more on the topic of Mary... this is not that post...

Good article from Insight Scoop about Evangelicals and Catholics Together on Mary.

I didn't go over it with a fine tooth comb, but it looks right overall.

ASC and Magnets

Interesting article at Science Daily.

"Following magnetic targeting, there was a five-fold increase in cell localisation"

Faster ASC

Interesting news from Science Daily.

"200 times more efficient and twice as fast as conventional methods for transforming adult human cells into stem cells"

ASC and Heart Repair

Several new developments since my last summary.

1. Treatment for heart attacks in human trials
2. Another form in animal trials
3. Now, a technique for growing heart tissue, using mouse cells

From the article:

"The researchers plan to test their model using non-embryonic stem cells... If they could use a patient's own cells, the patch would also evade an immune system reaction."

Irrelevant

An insightful post by Doug Wilson.

"There are two kinds of contempt that the world has -- one is for the spiritual man they respect, and the other is for the spiritual man they don't respect."

Compare and contrast John Macarthur and Joel Osteen.

Both are considered irrelevant by the world, both are held in contempt.

Macarthur, because he preaches the truth, and men hate the truth and would rather believe lies. His preaching is ultimately relevant. You can play his sermons from forty years ago, and one from yesterday. You can't tell the difference - because truth is always relevant.

Osteen is hated in a much more subtle way. It is like when you pat a dog on the head and say, "Good doggie, you're so smart." His sermons are also much the same - all forgettable.