Archive

Growing old, staying youngRegenerative medicine is one of the great biomedical challenges of this century. The basic idea is to repair, reconstruct, or engineer tissues - and to regenerate organs - before they become completely and irreversibly dysfunctional. Does it seem far fetched to you? Well, it isn't, because it is already happening.

Patenting human stem cells: medical lifeline or ethical high water?For some, the use of a shipping metaphor to illustrate the relationship between an evolving field of biomedical investigation and its legal and ethical implications borders on insensitive. For others, it is just a catchy way to attract attention to a subject that is, by its very nature, a sensitive one. These different responses underscore the challenges facing not only the scientific world but also policy-makers and the legal fraternity, as technology progresses into the post-genomic era of regenerative medicine.

A sunny future for solar cellsWith constantly rising fossil fuel prices, concern about security of energy supply, and growing evidence of climate change induced by society’s carbon dioxide emissions, interest in renewable energy sources has never been more intense.