Stanford physician Michael Lyons, MD, is not a stem cell researcher. But when the Connecticut House Speaker recently called him to discuss her "cautious, maybe even negative, feelings" about a state bill that would endorse embryonic stem cell research, the Stanford genetics fellow was happy to oblige. The state lawmaker felt uneasy about portions of the bill, so Lyons patiently defined complex scientific terms, clarified the differences between this type of research and reproductive cloning, and outlined what he saw as the merits of the work.
By the end of the conversation he had convinced his mom that she should support the legislation.
Lyons and his mother, Speaker Moira Lyons, are just two of many to dive into the debate surrounding stem cells, undeveloped cells that can be coaxed into growing into any kind of tissue. Stem cells are so small that they can't be seen with the naked eye, yet they tend to cause mass confusion and evoke the largest of responses. In fact, Moira Lyons blames the bill's eventual failure to pass in the Connecticut House on legislators'...
The U.S. government must move “quickly and decisively” to avert substantial national security risks stemming from artificial intelligence (AI) which could, in the worst case, cause an “extinction-level threat to the human species,” says a report commissioned by the U.S...
By Nada Hassanein, New Jersey Monitor | 03.14.2024
Aggregated News
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration late last year approved two breakthrough gene therapies for sickle cell disease patients. Now a new federal program seeks to make these life-changing treatments available to patients with low incomes — and it could...
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