ASC and Heart Attacks

We've seen that adult stem cells (ASC, specifically from bone marrow) are already being used to treat heart disease (angina).

Now, there is a separate study using bone marrow cells in heart attack patients.

These are not the same study. The first study had 167 participants, who did not have angioplasty or stents. The second involved 31 patients who had received angioplasty and stents.

ESC and Teeth

Good news for lovers of embryonic stem cell research!

Some day, in the dark future, embryonic stem cells may be used to give you new lips!

Loving Death

Proverbs 8:36 "But he that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul: All they that hate Me love death."

Every unrepentant person hates God (some are more vocal about it than others). They also love death (again, some are more vocal).

Albert Mohler has found a few who are very vocal...

Here again we see the appeal to efficiency.

"For 50 suicide attempts you have one suicide and the others are failing with heavy costs on the National Health Service. If we would have another attitude to suicide, saying suicide is a very good possibility to escape. In many, many cases they are terribly hurt afterwards sometimes you have to put them in institutions for 50 years. Very costly."

Very costly? Is cost our god? What about truth? What about doing right? These things have lost their meaning.

We like to think that all people are equally and infinitely valuable. But the reality is, real (numeric) costs can be assigned to people...

Rights

Much of modern debate is framed in terms of rights. The right to life, the right to marry, equal rights.

For abortion, this is "reproductive rights".

An article at Science Daily made me think about this, but I am not going to address the article directly.

There is a interesting paradox for Christians.

Only Christians can make a valid claim for "God-given rights". I have yet to hear a good argument from atheists about where rights come from. Most seem to be sliding into a gray area, where rights are whatever those in power decide they are (thus driving the competition for power and influence).

At the same time, the Bible urges us not to fight for our rights - but to put aside our rights in love and service to others (to put the needs of others ahead of the exercise of our rights).

Of course, when a direct command from God is in question (such as murder and abortion), then it is right to protest and disobey (within the limits of the law).

The ultimate escalation available being to put aside our rights entirely - allowing the government to imprison or even kill us. Never to overthrow the God-given authority of government.

Episcopals and Discernment

The Episcopal Church is not famous for its discernment (see V. Gene Robinson). But there is some good news from CNN:

"Episcopal minister defrocked after becoming a Muslim"

"The Diocese of Rhode Island, where Redding was ordained, told her to leave either her new Muslim faith or the ministry. A diocese statement said Bishop Geralyn Wolf found Redding to be 'a woman of utmost integrity. However, the Bishop believes that a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim.'"

You know it's bad when even CNN understands what is going on:

"There are many contradictions between the two religions. While Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet, Christianity worships him as the son of God."

The other big one being that Christianity believes Jesus paid the price for sin (satisfying God's just wrath), while Islam believes Jesus did not die on the cross (a fate too horrible for a prophet).

Islam believes we can pay the price for sin through works.

Adult Stem Cells and Heart Attacks

There are so many wins for adult stem cells, let me summarize:

1. Heart disease in humans (new one)
2. Stroke in rats (I think, it didn't say)
3. Paralysis in animals
4. Multiple sclerosis (in humans)
5. Muscular dystrophy (in animals)

Methods and Conclusions

This is not an April Fool's joke!

Intriguing article from Science Daily yesterday. I am not going to focus on the title ("Hundreds Of Natural-selection Studies Could Be Wrong, Study Demonstrates").

Rather, I am going to examine methods and conclusions.

Many people have an odd view of scientists and science. They think scientists are pure and noble (read Slashdot comments if you are in doubt). Seeking only the truth through holy procedures.

Scientists are people (aka fallen and sinful).

People motivated by greed and ego, pride and stubbornness. Naive ideologues and sinister schemers.

Most papers are published by graduate students and their professors. These people are measured by their output in number of papers and the quality of the conference ("publish or perish"). Corporate researchers are graded similarly (that was my job for six years).

I'm not saying there is a huge conspiracy to promote evolution.

But there is definitely not anything pure or holy in any field of research.

You do what it takes to get published.

The conference committees have certain expectations (things "look right" or "look wrong"). You don't mess around with what works. You don't question everything that came before you. You find the one small tweak on existing papers, and hope you get it done before your competitors (any good idea has been thought of multiple times, and the other guy is not more than a year behind you; probably only six months - if you're lucky).

In most fields, there is real world testing that happens after the research. Bridges fall down, microprocessors turn out with bad performance and high temperature. Rockets explode on the launch pad.

From the article:

"biologists should pair experimental data with their statistical data whenever possible. Scientists [evolutionary biologists?] usually do not use experimental data because such experiments can be difficult to conduct and because they are very time-consuming"