Stem cell research community warns against fraudulent clinics

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 month 3 days (www.nature.com)

Most scientists will tell you that stem cells show enormous potential and that we could see treatments for anything from diabetes to spinal cord injuries entering clinical trials any day now ...but let them know that the clinic down the street is offering "stem cell treatments" right as we speak, and the reaction gets significantly less optimistic.

The International Society for Stem Cell Research--the same organization that came out against stem cell tourism last year--has warned against clinics offering fraudulent, dangerous and unproven treatments

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: stem cell treatments stem cells stem cell tourism Stem-Cell Market regulation scientific community hoaxes

In the glow of the prize, Nature revisits the brawl

Darkfrog submitted, created time 3 months 19 hours (www.nature.com)

What does HIV have in common with calculus? The dogfight over who discovered it.

This is a copy of Nature magazine's 1987 editorial on the dispute between the (U.S.) National Cancer Institute's Dr. Robert Gallo and the (French) Pasteur Institute's Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier--a conflict only slightly dramatized in the nonfiction novel and film "And the Band Played On."

In 1983, Montagnier brought samples of viral isolate to the NCI so that Gallo's lab could examine them

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: HIV AIDS history of science science and culture scientific community patents Robert Gallo Pasteur Institute

Scientists get online news aggregator

kavin submitted, created time 6 months 1 week (www.nature.com)

Canadian researcher launches science version of Google News. A Canadian graduate student dissatisfied with science coverage on online sites such as Google News and Yahoo News has created a news aggregator especially for scientists.

Michael Imbeault, an HIV researcher at the Université Laval in Quebec, launched his fully automated site called e! Science News (http://esciencenews.com) last month. It has already attracted 300,000 different users, and averages 5,000 visits a day, he says.

2 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: science news scientific community