Fucking Stem Cells: How Do They Work??
In my first blog post I mentioned that my new job is to study stem cells. A commenter asked if I was conflicted about working with "little baby-bits". Remarkably, no embryos are required. This is because our lab uses adult stem cells. The use of adult stem cells was a surprise to me, because until I began this job I'd assumed that adult stem cells were just a talking point for conservatives who didn't want to admit to being against a promising medical treatment, like when liberals talk about "clean coal". It turns out that Rick Perry -- a huge fan of stem cells -- was actually right in his insistence that embryonic tissues would become obsolete. If you have a gong you bang whenever Rick Perry is correct about a matter of science, now would be your chance to enjoy this rare opportunity. Most of us learned in school that cells grow by dividing. This, however, is a massive oversimplification. Bacteria and cells in an embryo proliferate by div...