Thomas Okarma discusses the long and controversial path to harnessing the power of human embryonic stem cells

A high school biology teacher brings Web 2.0 into the classroom

California-based biotech company Geron Corp. announced today (Jan. 23) that it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin trials for the world's first clinical study on human embryonic stem cell-based therapy. linkurl:Geron;http://www.geron.com/ plans to initiate a Phase I multicenter clinical trial in up to 10 patients paralyzed due to spinal cord injury. Its treatment -- currently referred to as "GRNOPC1" -- uses embryonic stem cells coaxed to become nerve cell

The US Food and Drug Administration's linkurl:decision;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55353/ to green light a human embryonic stem cell-based therapy for spinal cord injury isn't just good news for the biotech in question, Geron Corp., analysts say -- instead, they argue, the move opens the door to an entire market that has heretofore been stymied. "It's the first clear evidence of the FDA's willingness to permit cells derived from pluripotent stem cells to go into human trials," lin

Deep in the Amazon jungle, researchers have discovered a dung beetle that doesn't live up to its name, a sign the insect has undergone speciation. 

Seven animal rights activists who blackmailed companies that supplied linkurl:Huntingdon Life Sciences,;http://www.huntingdon.com/ an animal testing laboratory based in the UK, were sentenced today (Jan. 21) to between four and 11 years in prison. From 2001 to 2007, members of the linkurl:Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty;http://www.shac.net/ (SHAC) group used inflammatory graffiti, false allegations of pedophilia, and bomb hoaxes to intimidate managers and staff with links to the Cambridge-based

Several top UK universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, stand to lose millions of pounds in research funding as a result of last year's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), Britain's major review of research quality. However, other institutions that focus less on research may see an increase in funding, setting off accusations that the two tiers of schools could be engaging in "class warfare." On December 18, the RAE released its linkurl:rankings;http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/20

In an attempt to provide alternative metrics to the traditional journal impact factor, the open-access journal __Public Library of Science ONE__ announced that it will release a slew of alternative impact data about individual articles in the coming months. The new "articles-level metrics project" -- which will post usage data, page views, citations from linkurl:Scopus;http://info.scopus.com/ and linkurl:CrossRef,;http://www.crossref.org/ social networlking links, press coverage, comments, and

British grant applicants will have to demonstrate the economic or social impact of their research, according to new funding rules rolled out by linkurl:Research Councils UK;http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/ (RCUK), the umbrella body for all of Britain's seven research councils. The "impact summary," which requires grant seekers to answer questions about the wider benefits of their research, was implemented today (Jan. 15) by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Other funding

Two very similar studies investigating a single gene's role in pathogen susceptibility have come to pretty much opposite conclusions. A __C. elegans__ gene that was previously shown to affect innate immunity might simply alter the worm's behavior, according to a new linkurl:study;http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/323/5912/382 published today (Jan. 15) in __Science,__ although some scientists remain skeptical of the paper's findings. Last September, a team led by linkurl:Alejandro A

Less than a year after the creation of "admixed" human-animal hybrid embryos for stem cell research was legalized in the UK, investigators with permits to conduct the research have had their grant proposals rejected by two of the country's leading funding bodies. "Our funding applications have not been successful, so we don't have the equipment and personnel to do this work," linkurl:Stephen Minger,;http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/biohealth/research/wolfson/sminger.html a stem cell researcher at K

The genetics of a marine protozoan may overturn one of the long-held tenets of protein synthesis. According to conventional wisdom, the genetic code is unambiguous: each DNA triplet, or codon, corresponds to a single amino acid. But a linkurl:study;http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/323/5911/25 in this week's __Science__ reports that in the wee waterborn creature __Euplotes crassus__, a single codon can code for two different amino acids, even within the same gene. This two-pronged