Embryonic stem cells could someday work like micoscopic fountains of youth. Then again, what's so great about immortality?
What's so great about immortality?
That impertinent question occurs to me in the aftermath of recent news reports about the long-awaited isolation of human embryonic stem cells. A group of researchers at the Geron Corp. in Menlo Park, Calif., announced this sensational discovery in the waning days of November (although readers of Technology Review were treated to a fascinating advance story by Antonio Regalado in last year's July/August issue).
Embryonic stem cells are being packaged for popular imagination as microscopic fountains of youth. These primordial cells retain the ability to develop into every cell type in the body-skin, liver, heart muscle, neuron-if correctly coaxed by the right biological signals.
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