Master cells

Stem Cell "Master Gene" Found

Scientists yesterday said they have discovered a long-sought "master gene" in embryonic stem cells that is largely responsible for giving those cells their unique regenerative and therapeutic potential.

The discovery of the gene brings scientists closer to a holy grail of biology: the ability to turn ordinary cells into those that possess all the biomedical potency of human embryonic stem cells, eliminating the need to destroy embryos to get them.

Researchers cautioned that the new work -- details of which were published in today's issue of the journal Cell -- will not bring a quick end to the political controversy over human embryo research. Some said research involving human embryos will be more important than ever for at least a while, as scientists turn their attention to the master gene and how it works in its natural, embryonic environment.

But experts said the work -- conducted mostly on mouse embryo cells but also on human equivalents -- is already revealing more about the mysterious capacity of embryonic stem cells to retain indefinitely their youthful potential to become any kind of cell the body might need. That phenomenon is known as pluripotency.

In recognition of that power, the researchers have named the gene "nanog," a reference to the mythological Celtic land of Tir Nan Og, whose fairy-like residents are said to stay forever young.

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The REAL Language Police

Language Police Bar "Old," "Blind"

Oh heck: Hell hath no place in American primary and high school textbooks.

But then again you can't find anyone riding on a yacht or playing polo in the pages of an American textbook either. The texts also can't say someone has a boyish figure, or is a busboy, or is blind, or suffers a birth defect, or is a biddy, or the best man for the job, a babe, a bookworm, or even a barbarian.

All these words are banned from U.S. textbooks on the grounds that they either elitist (polo, yacht) sexist (babe, boyish figure), offensive (blind, bookworm) ageist (biddy) or just too strong (hell which is replaced with darn or heck). God is also a banned word in the textbooks because he or she is too religious.

To get the full 500-word list of what is banned and why, consult "The Language Police," a new book by New York University professor of education Dianne Ravitch, a former education official in President George H.W. Bush's administration and a consultant to the Clinton administration.

She says she stumbled on her discovery of what's allowed and not allowed by accident because publishers insist that they do not impose censorship on their history and English textbook authors but merely apply rules of sensitivity -- which have expanded mightily since first introduced in the 1970s to weed out gender and racial bias.

Ravitch's book is taking people by surprise the same way that Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" did in the 1960s in exposing the effects of pesticides.

[...] "Everyone gets their pet causes incorporated in textbooks. The history texts are reluctant to criticize any dictator unless they are long dead. And even then, there are exceptions like Mao is praised in one text for modernizing China but his totalitarian rule is not mentioned," she said.

She was also unhappy to see photos in one text of Saudi women working as doctors and nurses because that implied that they had gender equality.

"You also can't say Mother Russia or Fatherland or brotherhood in texts and that's both silly, trivial and breathtaking. It is like George Orwell's 'Newspeak' come to life," she said in an interview, referring to the manipulation of language in "1984."

Ravitch said that textbook publishing is controlled by four main publishers and they aim to sell texts state by state, thus forcing them to dumb down the books and make the language as inoffensive as possible. "They don't want controversy and they don't want people screaming," she said.


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This last bit touches on the upcoming FCC vote to relax broadcast restrictions as well.

The conglomeration of media outlets = a reduction in democracy. The liberals are right on this one.

Whoowee, is this funny!

The Smoking Gun: Jayson Blair's college poetry

Be especially sure to check out the second one, "Heathery".

(Note: may not be funny to non-poetry folk. ... No, on second thought, everyone will get something out of "Heathery".)