What's New Friday November 23, 2007

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 23 Nov 07   Washington, DC

1. PLURIPOTENT CELLS: IS THIS THE BIG STEM-CELL BREAKTHROUGH?
If you have the uneasy feeling that we’ve been there before, you are not 
alone.  Two years ago the Woo Suk Hwang fraud began to unravel 
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN05/wn121605.html .  This week, two groups 
of researchers reported the creation of "pluripotent" cells from human 
skin cells: a team led by Shinya Yamanaka at the University of Kyoto and a 
team led by James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin. Both groups used 
four genes, introduced by viral vectors, to reprogram human foreskin 
cells.  Yamanaka’s cells were able to form human cardiac muscle cells that 
started beating after differentiating for 12 days.  Perhaps the strongest 
indication that the ethical battle over human embryonic stem cells may at 
last be ending is a report in British newspapers that Ian Wilmut, the 
University of Edinburgh biologist who cloned Dolly the sheep, has 
announced that he is getting out of the cloning business in favor of 
Yamanaka’s reprogramming technique.

2. SCIENCE ADVICE: WHO IS ADVISING THE CANDIDATES ABOUT SPACE?
Recognizing that the only direction is up, WN has tried to stay clear of 
the nomination battle.  It was a jolt, however, to read in the Washington 
Post today that the Democratic front runner supports key aspects of the 
Bush space plan, hereafter referred to as the Lunacy Program.  It calls 
for a return to the Moon in the multibillion dollar Constellation 
spacecraft to prepare for a vastly more expensive human mission to Mars to 
do that which robots do better.  Barack Obama would delay Constellation 
for five years to provide funds for education.  We’re all in favor of 
education, but there are vital science programs in space that are getting 
squeezed out for this money sink.  Let's consider climate change:  

3. CLIMATE CHANGE: A MAJOR GAP EXISTS IN QUANTIFYING THE CHANGE. 
Solar radiation is partly absorbed by the Earth system and partly 
reflected back into space.  The reflectivity is called the albedo.  In 
addition, the planet radiates back into space in the infrared.  Both the 
albedo and Earth radiation must be known to determine the energy balance.  
But as Francisco Valero at Scripps and Robert Charlson at U. of Washington 
have pointed out, comparisons of satellite radiometers from CERES (Cloud 
and Earth Radiant Energy System) and ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud 
Climatology Program) do not agree.  Data from DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate 
Observatory) would provide a calibration to resolve the matter - 
unfortunately DSCOVR, built and paid for, never got launched. There are 
those who would rather not know.

4. BIODIVERSITY: WHO DECIDES WHAT WE SHOULD LET GO?
Rachel Carson’s 1962 book "Silent Spring" resulted in the environmental 
movement and a decade later the Endangered Species Act.  As the biologist 
Paul Ehrlich argued, we don’t understand ecology well enough to know which 
genes are essential, so we tried to save them all.  With the Earth facing 
crisis, an article by Emma Marris the 8 Nov 07 issue of Nature has the 
courage to finally ask out loud, "What to Let Go?".  

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
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