Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Project: Article Assignment

The article, although very ineresting, is very controversial. The scientist that was mentioned is a local one at that. He works at UGA and is a zealous researcher of stem cells. He has veen claimed that he has found out how to make millions of nerve (neural) cells out of a few stem cells, which is a leap for the world of science. Now he has discovered a possible method of detecting harmful chemical substances in the surrounding area. It works by setting the cells into a mechanism of electrodes. These electrodes record electrical changes to show the presence of a foreign substance (e.g. mustard gas or tear gas).

Even though this method has been found, it has yet to be made into a fool-proof product. I think that as long as teh cells being used are not from aborted fetuses, than there should not be a problem. As said in the article, he uses "naturally dead embryos". These embryos are ones that couldnt produce a fetus even if put inside a womb. Morally, this method is acceptable in my own opinion. I am also very surprised at the fact that science has made a huge jump into the future with this discovery. Maybe one day, stem cells could be made into common and accepted medical products.