★Awarded a star by Kirkus Reviews for "remarkable merit"
Regenerative Medicine
It is the manipulation of stem cells that lies at the heart of the debate of the twenty-first-century biorenaissance. Creating embryonic-like stem cells and reprogramming adult stem cells to do something other than what they're originally programmed to do makes possible the practice of regenerative medicine--the ability to repair and restore tissues, organs, even limbs damaged by disease or lost by injury.
Questions about regeneration were first raised by scientists who studied the amazing power of flatworms, newts, and other lower animal forms to replace or restore tissue they had lost to injury. Scientists asked back then, as countless other researchers have asked since: "If worms can regenerate themselves, why can't we?"
Thanks to stem cells, maybe we can.
-- From The Stem Cell Dilemma
Prometheus, chained to Mount Caucasus with an eagle eating his liver. The liver has marvelous regenerative abilities. Why don't other organs? Bullfinch's Mythology - The Age of the Fable.
