I’ve just moved into a new role in work. My new title is Technology Consultant. A major part of the job function will be finding, evaluating and introducing new technologies into the company I work for and into our ICT offerings. I’ll also have a team of people working for me. Should be fun. Getting paid to look at new stuff. Obviously there will be more to it than that, but still…
There has been a lot of hoopla and news coverage recently about the results, from teams in Japan and the USA, who used chemical manipulation to produce cells that resemble stem cells. Many groups that oppose the use of embryos in research have proclaimed that the new results mean that there is no longer any valid reasons for using stem cells derived from embryos. They are mistaken for several reasons (ignoring the fact that they opposed the research using embryos anyway).
The results from the latest research do not equate to a medical breakthrough (as some have claimed). What has been published are the results of research on using transcription factors to reprogram skin cells into a state that resemble a stem cell. However both groups used viruses as the vector to introduce the genes to produce the transcription factors into the cells. It’s very unlikely that virally modified cells will be permitted for use in human trials and treatments. So the current research will not be directly translatable into human treatments. More work will be required to find other ways to introduce the transcription factors. Also the fact that the resultant cells resemble stem cells does not mean that they are stem cells. There could be biochemical limitations and side effects that have still to be discovered.
Talk of the end of research using embryonic stem cells is premature. We need to pursue all lines of research, including using embryonic stem cells. Given that many embryos are left over after human fertilisation, and that these will be discarded anyway, then I can’t see what the problem is with using them for research. If we accept the processes that produce the embryos (and we should) then simply discarding the unused ones when they could be used for research is just daft.
All avenues of research need to be kept open and funded in this area. We don’t know which technique will prove to be the best. As Einstein once said:
If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research, would it?
To paraphrase. If we knew the best outcome then we could pick the research line that leads to it. But we don’t, so we have to research on all fronts. And that includes using embryonic stem cells and other techniques like nuclear transfer and animal/human hybrid cells. Plus any other techniques that researchers haven’t thought off yet.
The Omni Group have announced pricing and a release date for OmniFocus. I’ve been using the beta versions for a while. It’s a very nice application for sorting out the things you need to get done. It can help you implement the Getting Things Done methodology. Well worth checking out if you need an application to help sort your life out and keep track of all the tasks you need to do in work and personal life. The also have a nice movie, that is the first of a series to be posted, to show how to use the application.
The evidence…
Of course if you did the a similar video for the sites espousing irrational beliefs you’d be there for a while.
Link via Pharyngula.
I haven’t heard this song for ages. Several years, until it came up on random play in iTunes today. I was working from home writing stuff for work with the music as background. I did something I very rarely do these days and just let iTunes play songs at random from the whole library of between 4 & 5 thousand tracks. That’s just under 20 days of music if I let it play through the whole library.
Anyway it threw up In a Broken Dream by Python Lee Jackson with Rod Stewart as guest vocalist. This is a truly wonderful piece of music. The vocals are fantastic. The guitar is blistering. The bass guitar is stunningly good, and the drumming is a perfect rhythmic complement to the whole thing. It’s tracks like this that remind me what a truly wonderful thing music is. Brilliant.
I can’t find it on iTMS to link to it. There is a YouTube video of about 3 minutes 30 seconds of the track. It’s a video of a vinyl copy being played 🙂
It’ll let you get a good feel for the song. I have it on the best Rock Album in the world…ever. Vol 1.
The SF Sketchfest comedy festival is on in SF from 10th to 27th January. Happy days. I’ll be in San Francisco for 10 of those days. Have to keep an eye on the Sketchfest schedule to see who is performing on the nights I’m there.