The Biology of Stem Cells

The Missoula Area Secular Society is hosting another free public lecture.

When: Thursday, Nov 18th, 6:00pm
Where: Missoula Public Library, Large Meeting Room

Embryonic stem cells hold great promise for replacing cells in damaged tissue, even brain cells, but significant challenges remain before this can be realized. Not least of challenges is that stem cells may form tumors. It is difficult to cause stem cells to differentiate into exactly and only the type of cells needed for therapy.

The ethical and political considerations about research using stem cells require a clear understanding of stem cell biology. Research on stem cells is not human cloning, which should not be attempted, yet fear of human cloning is raised to prevent research on stem cells.

The Missoula Area Secular Society is proud to host Professor Mark Grimes for a free public lecture on the biology and politics of stem cell research. The lecture will be held in the Missoula Public Library in the large meeting room downstairs at 6:00pm.

After the lecture, some members of the Missoula Area Secular Society will likely migrate to a downtown restaurant to continue the discussion over food and drink, and cordially invite you to join them. Stick around after the lecture for details.

God vs. Modern Medicine

Kudos to Jeff over at the Missoula Skeptics Blog for spotting an AP story in today's Missoulian about a study that found 57% of Americans still believe that "God’s intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile." I would have completely missed this story if Jeff hadn't blogged about it.

Jeff sounds pretty discouraged by the results of the study, but I actually found it encouraging (I guess you could call me a "glass 43% full" kinda guy). The news for me here is that 43% of Americans do not believe that god's intervention could save a family member. Regardless of whether or not god would intervene, these people apparently don't think she's capable of changing the outcome.

That's a significant proportion of Americans who are at least starting to think about these kind of things rationally. Most of them would probably still say that they "believe in god", but they're starting to recognize that she's irrelevant. If they don't believe that she's going to do anything about a suffering loved one, then she probably doesn't have any influence on the more mundane moments in their lives, either.