Medical Science of the 22nd century: Stem Cells
             Stem cell research is a new and controversial topic these days. Stem cells a re used to treat many once incurable diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's, and other neurological diseases. The limited success with animal stem cells has lead doctors to rely on human stem cell lines. According to the new law doctors are legally able to obtain stem cells from adult sources. This provides limited use do to the fact that most adults need their neurological stem cells even if they do not use them. Many doctors have agreed on the fact that embryonic stem cells are much more effective. However, this means taking the stem cells from aborted fetuses or unused in vitro fertilization embryos. Using a technique that avoids the ethical landmines associated with embryonic stem cell research, scientists have come up with a new way to obtain stem cells capable of differentiating into nerve cells and other types of tissue cells by using unfertilized mouse eggs. The process may someday be used on human tissues. Doctors have announced that they had cultivated neurons and other tissue cells from stem cells harvested from mouse eggs developed through a process called parthenogenesis, which does not require any sperm or the use of somatic cell nuclear transfer. The next step is to verify that the tissue is normal and does not cause any harm if used for transplantation. The drawback in the new method is that it works for females only: there is no way to make stem cells from sperm. But Doctors hope to solve the problem by obtaining other tissue types from these stem cells, and eventually develop a method that can be used be men as well as for women. Artecel Sciences in Durham, N.C. also have a plan for obtaining stem cells. They will soon begin animal tests of its new method of using stem cells from adipose (fat) tissue to expand umbilical cord blood stem cells. Depending on the outcome of the t...