On my wishlist...

Another book about cloning, but this one does look good. It comes out this month and looks to be a good summary of the arguments for cloning.

From the review:

Herold was surprised by Professor Smith’s statement about the utility of therapeutic cloning. Of course there is a possibility that scientists will never succeed in generating patient-specific embryonic stem cells, but unless we do the research we will never know, she argues, adding: ‘As Einstein said, “If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research, would it?”’

Stem Cell Wars confronts the myriad arguments against this branch of science in a convincing and engaging way. Herold concludes the book by saying: ‘The idea of putting a freeze on progress because there are good and bad people in the world, because knowledge can be misused, or because we can’t always guarantee the outcome is an assault on the human spirit. It is living by our worst fears not our greatest hopes.’

The votes are in...

... and so is stem cell research. Those who know me (and/or read this blog) will know I'd be pleased.

Before the Patterson Bill was passed, I was going to post about how I wonder if the change in Labor leadership will mean anything for science. It may not mean much in terms of votes, but it does give Julia Gillard a bit more attention when she makes her statements as Labor's health spokesperson:

They are saying surplus eggs from IVF processes and I think that is the best place to start. Obviously there may be future issues about donation but I don’t believe we are there yet and we should see if the supply of surplus eggs from IVF processes is sufficient.

I agree with this. Avoiding egg donation directly from women is definitely to be avoided: Woo-Suk Hwang has taught us that. All the ethics committees in the world can't stop subtly coercion of junior, female staff. It's a sad inevitability of humanity. And the risks of egg donation mean that they should only be given freely.

So yes, I'm pleased. In August, I posted about three areas where I think Australia is lagging behind the rest of the developed world. Two out of three of those areas have improved tremendously. Now all we need is a better strategy to slow climate change and we'll be set. Well, not quite, but we're on the right track.