Various Curiosities

The Korean scientists who was villified in 2004 for claiming to have cloned embryonic stem cells has been acquitted--sort of. The BBC reports on it here, and Time magazine here. I think that a lot of people are confused about the issue of stem cell research. Stem cells are cells that have not yet been specialized. Quite frankly, to some extent they are mysteries of medical science. We know that when an embryo is formed, it starts as a single cell, and it divides into multiple cells, and eventually most of those cells form internal organs, hands, feet, etc. No one has yet found any markers in embryonic cells that tell them whether to become a liver or an eye, they just do. I believe that somewhere along the line, scientists have tried reorganizing embryonic cells in a developing embryo (to see if an arm would form in a chimpanzee's back) only to find that this caused no abnormality in the developing fetus. The excitement of the research is that if we can take these undifferentiated cells and inject them into damaged tissue (say, into the brain of someone with Parkinson's, or the skin of a burn victim) then the stem cells should form into the type of tissue that they are around, and eliminate the problem. The media has focused mainly on embryonic stem cell research, even though there are also adult stem cells. There are three problems with embryonic stem cell research: The most well-known of which is that a lot of people feel that destroying one 'life' in order to help other people is immoral--somewhat Orwellian. The other two are actual medical problems: Stem cells still have DNA, and the new tissue formed by stem cells may be rejected by the host body (the patient's own immune system). This can be overcome with immune-response suppressing drugs, but this then poses a new risk to the patient's life, since his immune system is inhibited. The other, which may be closely related, is that they haven't yet succeeded in getting the stem cells to do what they are supposed to do. Lab animals injected with stem cells to test a treatment for Parkinson's simply end up with brain tumors, not functioning, healthy brain tissue. All three problems can be averted by using adult stem cells from the patient's own body. The moral dilemma is overcome, since one life is not being destroyed to cultivate the stem cells, the immune response is not a problem, since the stem cells share the patient's own DNA, and they don't form tumors. Unfortunately, they also (as of yet) don't form the type of cells that we expect. Stem cell researchers continue to tell us that both avenues of research are very promising, we'll just have to wait and see.

On a completely different topic, the NAACP is urging people to remember that Michael Vick is innocent until proven guilty. It has been pointed out that they didn't take that attitude with the Duke Lacrosse team case, and, to their credit, have admitted that it was a mistake. They have also pointed out that Michael Vick has already been treated much more severely than, say, Kobe Bryant, who was accused of rape in 2004. To be honest, that's a good point. Do we really feel that dogfighting is a more heinous crime than rape? Check this.

In the meantime, some Californians are complaining about street vendors selling Mexican food. I've mentioned before that I am a Navy veteran, and, as such, have had opportunity to see how things work in other countries. In the Republic of the Philippines, they used to have push-carts near the base called 'point-points' because a lot of times the vendors didn't speak English, and a lot of sailors couldn't pronounce the words, 'lumpia' (egg rolls) or 'pansit' (noodles made from rice, sometimes served with some form of meat--don't ask what kind--or sweetened and served as a dessert), so you just point to what you want on the point-point. In Israel street vendors used to have 'shishliks' (barbecue spits) set up, where you could get barbecued lamb served on pita bread with various fixings, very much like the Greek sandwich known as a gyro. New York City has had street vendors for years (mostly selling hot dogs). The complaint in California seems to be that the street vendors are hurting the business of sit-down restaurants. I'm sorry, but I find it hard to sympathize with a restaurant selling actual food that can't compete with a push-cart full of tacos. If you can't serve up lasagna in such a way that people would rather sit down and eat than walk down the sidewalk eating a taco, then maybe you should be looking for another line of work.

A 'Rocky Mountain Oyster' festival in Clinton, Montana is being threatened by fires. My local supermarket sells those, but they don't call them that--they call them 'bovine surprise.' Fortunately, we have a thriving Latino community, so the grocery store uses bi-lingual labelling. The Spanish name makes a lot more sense to me, 'Testiculos de Toro.' Either way, they don't seem to sell very many of them.