Monthly Archives: October 2017

Benefit # 14 (of 71) from the California Stem Cell Program: REGAINING HEARING?

By |2020-12-02T21:26:28+00:00October 31st, 2017|

Did you ever wonder how you hear, and what would happen if you couldn’t? Deep within the ear, in the snail-shaped cochlea, 30,000 hair cells rest in a bath of liquid. When noise occurs, the hair cells tremble slightly. This sends vibrations to the brain, which translates them as sound. When these hair cells wear

Benefit # 12 (of 71) from the California Stem Cell Program: A PATH TO ENDING EPILEPSY?

By |2021-09-09T07:37:12+00:00October 26th, 2017|

I was walking across my high school football field one day, when the boy in front of me suddenly fell to the ground. He went down hard; then writhed around violently, as if wrestling with himself. I just stood there, holding my schoolbooks, no idea what to do. Presently the contortions calmed. He lay there

Benefit # 11 (of 71) from the California Stem Cell Program: ALLEVIATING AGING AGONIES?

By |2020-12-02T21:26:28+00:00October 21st, 2017|

“Would you want to live forever?”, asked Gloria, beloved wife of nearly half a century. At 72, I consider myself middle-aged. My father, Dr. Charles H. Reed, is 95 and plays tennis three times a week and is reading the Bible in French. He is conversant in 12 languages, and once wrote an education dictionary

Benefit # 10 (of 71) of the California Stem Cell Program: STEM CELL DECISION-MAKING?

By |2020-12-02T21:26:28+00:00October 17th, 2017|

First, for readers wanting more information on ALS, the subject of one of my previous pieces, let me refer you to an outstanding article by Dr. Karen Ring of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a champion science writer. Now: stem cell decision-making? Having no conscious will of their own, stem cells of course cannot “decide” anything.

Benefit #9 (of 71) from the California Stem Cell Program: Fighting ALS

By |2021-09-05T16:40:54+00:00October 14th, 2017|

Imagine a high school, with 1,000 students. But all of them are deathly sick; their limbs are failing, the muscles growing weak; they are all becoming paralyzed, and will die in 3-5 years. Now imagine thirty-two such schools, with everybody diagnosed with ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease. This is no horror

Benefit # 8 (of 71) of the California Stem Cell Program: “Battling AIDS”

By |2020-12-02T21:26:29+00:00October 10th, 2017|

A member of the California stem cell program’s board of directors, and San Francisco County Supervisor Jeff Sheehy is a tall, broad-shouldered man, with more than a passing resemblance to a young John Wayne. He has a daughter, Michele, age eleven; her eyes just shine when she looks at her Dad. So what is the

Go to Top