Blog: http://blog.lejog2008.co.uk

Bristol Walk Info: http://blog.lejog2008.co.uk/bristol-walk/

Get your RSS subscriptions in quick…

Still let me know if you’re planning on coming…preferably before we leave!

Probably no more than that as I have exams and stuff but I don’t have any next week so a couple of hours in the sunshine (although that is false advertising as the weather forecast is slightly less optimistic) will be fine. I can’t do Friday as I actually have an exam but I could do a short stint on Saturday morning if that helps at all?

i guess controversy is around where they collect the stem cells rather than the actual use of the stem cells? if you could get them from skin (like you said earlier) or somewhere else then i guess there’d be a lot less controversy? can’t they collect them from the bone marrow if they exist there?

As a embryo develops it has three layers and from the middle layer (mesoderm) come these “pluripotent” cells (basically a posh word for saying “cells that can do most things” from these some go on to create the nervous system which comprises of crazily intricate and clever cells (neurones/nerves) and the others go on to form just about everything else; skin, muscles, organs etc.

Once everything is in place it becomes a specialised cell to do its job and altough you can transplant cells from one part of the body to another sometime they will still do the same job or an adapted version of the same job. For example you know that surgeons sometimes remove skin from one area to help heal an area that’s lst skin from a burn or something but if you put a skin cell in your brain it would not become a neuron. Similarly some nerves can be moved from the peripheral nervous system (the nerves in your body) to the centra nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and it’s function may change slightly but it still acts as a nerve. Following?

So if we can collect stem cells we have the potantial to make any tissue in the body. This is really special when it comes to diseases that start in the brain as the brain is so mentally complicated that it doesn’t repair. You may think that sounds like a bit of a rubbish organ but the reason it doens’t repair is because it is so so so complicated that it is actually better to just write-off part of your brain that goes wrong and let it die than try to repair it because the chances of repairing it right using the nerves that haven’t died is so slim. The problems that might occur from rewiring the brain to repair an injury are worse than just letting a bit of the brain stop working altogether generally so our these nerves are the only cells that don’t repair.

Does that make sense? It’s actually a lot more complicated tha that as no dobt you’ll realsie when yu stat spotting any flaws in what i just said but that’s basically why stem cells are pretty cool. We could cure illnesses that can’t be cured because it involves degeneration of the brain.

Like I said I’m not an expert on the brain and I know next to nothing about stem cell research but that’s my two-pennys worth…

yeah… being from a non science background it’s hard to quite understand what’s what… and like martin says there seem to be alot of conflicting views around (from which it’s hard to formulate your own opinion). i guess, from a quick glance, when you hear about animal/people hybrid things it sounds quite messed up.

from the sounds of it people dont seem to be certain either way if stem cell research is ethically wrong or not (but people don’t seem to be that personally against the practice itself - if i’ve understood correctly) i’d find it helpful if someone could explain what a stem cell is and what specifically about it makes it good for the research being done?

however people do seem to be more concerned that we (as individuals and as countries) spend alot on a few while when many die that could be save with very little.

anyway thanks again for your thoughts…

PS… i liked the story about the women breaking the well. but i wonder if it’s the case that while ‘developed’ countries are rich in health… people in ‘developing’ countries are richer in life? (that thought probably needs some smoothing out but it’s probably partly true)

If we want to use money to improve people’s lives, we should absolutely be using existing, low tech solutions to the major problems of the world: condoms for AIDS, mosquito nets and insecticides for malaria, vitamin supplements for the malnourished, wells and irrigation for drinking water, crops and sanitation. I don’t think, however, that drug (or any) companies are to blame for the fact we don’t. As Martin says, they exist to make a profit (and I think most drug research is privately funded). Instead we must blame ourselves, for business in many ways just reflects the will of the population. People don’t like helping the needy, they like pleasing themselves. As for the government, it would be great if it diverted (most? all?) money to helping the needy in other countries rather than our own. But the fact it doesn’t is just a reflection of the majority’s indifference. To tweak the analogy again: “like buying new wallpaper for a house while next door’s foundations are crumbling”. Incidentally, I suspect that this side of human nature is not racist, just selfish.

Are stem cells people? Trivially, stem cells exist in bone marrow and the umbilical cord, and we don’t normally think of ourselves as walking nation states. I guess the issue is whether embryos are people, and that one has been around for a while. As Chloe explains, the embryos can be hybrids, which may change your outlook. But I can’t think of a logical argument that answers the question.