Word: stems
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When Rush Limbaugh accused Michael J. Fox of going off his Parkinson's meds to make a political ad in favor of embryonic-stem-cell research--and against Republican candidates who oppose it--the insult backfired. A pro-stem-cell law passed in Missouri, and Democrat Claire McCaskill was elected to the Senate in a tight contest. But it isn't just celebrity endorsements that make people favor embryonic cells as a possible treatment for Parkinson's (and a long list of other diseases): clinical results are starting to come in too, including those from a 10-year study...
...report in the Journal of the American Medical Association may point to at least part of the answer. In a study of 31 babies who died of SIDS and 10 who died from other causes, the SIDS babies had many more abnormalities among the neurons in their brain stem than did the other infants. The defects involved the processing of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that, among other things, controls arousal from sleep. When SIDS babies get into a position in which their access to fresh air is blocked, they can fail to wake up and move...
...STEM CELLS...
Using his first veto since he entered office, President George W. Bush rejected a bill that would have partially lifted his 2001 ban on the use of federal funds for human embryonic-stem-cell research. The measure would have allowed government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from IVF procedures to generate stem cells, a potential source of new treatments for everything from diabetes to Parkinson's. At a press conference this summer, Bush surrounded himself with "snowflake babies," born after couples adopted frozen embryos, and argued that such research was morally questionable. Still, U.S. scientists are pushing ahead...
...talking peace, despite Bangkok's post-Thaksin eagerness to do so. Surayud's fresh approach has had no impact on the daily diet of bomb blasts, shoot-outs and beheadings. "The government has sent some encouraging signals, but it will need to go much further if it hopes to stem the killings," says Francesca Lawe-Davies, a Southeast Asia analyst with the International Crisis Group. "It will need to address the underlying grievances that attract people into armed movements...