Stem-cell nomenclature is in a muddle! So-called stem cells may be self-renewing or emergent, oligopotent (uni- and multipotent) or pluri- and totipotent, cells with perpetual embryonic features or cells that have changed irreversibly. Ambiguity probably seeped into stem cells from common usage, flukes in biology's history beginning with Weismann's divide between germ and soma and Haeckel's biogenic law and ending with contemporary issues over the therapeutic efficacy of adult versus embryonic cells. Confusion centers on tissue dynamics, whether stem cells are (...) properly members of emerging or steady-state populations. Clarity might yet be achieved by codifying differences between cells in emergent populations, including embryonic stem and embryonic germ (ES and EG) cells in tissue culture as opposed to self-renewing (SR) cells in steady-state populations. BioEssays 28: 301–308, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Argues that death is not unchanging, but rather has evolved over time.

Françoise Baylis’s “aim in writing this book is to improve the ethics literacy and science literacy of those who are keen to reflect on the ethics and governance of deliberately altering the genome...

Maia Weinstock’s 2022 Carbon Queen is not a biography of Mildred Dresselhaus (Millie). It is a tribute and testimonial richly endowed with citations, comments, and compliments! “In all, Millie auth...

The European Legacy, Volume 17, Issue 5, Page 711-712, August 2012.

Huxley: The Devil's Disciple, vol. 1. By Adrian Desmond xvii + 475 pp. £20.00 cloth. Huxley: Evolution's High Priest, vol. 2. By Adrian Desmond xiv + 370 pp. £27.00 cloth.

Volume 25, Issue 5, August 2020, Page 609-612.

David Haig’s From Darwin to Derrida scrutinizes a wide range of historical and contemporary issues embedded in the theory and practice of genetics—from genes to multilevel selection, from prokaryot...

Volume 25, Issue 7-8, November - December 2020, Page 886-888.

The European Legacy, Volume 17, Issue 4, Page 560-561, July 2012.

Allow me to introduce hydra, specifically, Hydra viridis [AKA Chlorohydra viridissima; Hydra viridissima], the green hydra, photographed here in culture (Fig. 1, enlarged ~10:1). This animal has si...

The European Legacy, Volume 17, Issue 5, Page 710-711, August 2012.

Josh Berson’s meat question is, “Should humans be eating meat, and if so who, and what kinds, and how much?”. Answers emerge in the Prologue and two Parts united by a Bridge, Part 1, “Did Meat...

Volume 25, Issue 7-8, November - December 2020, Page 888-891.

Heather Swan’s Where the Grass Still Sings consists of an introduction and eight chapters, each containing a “Gallery” with graphics, an Afterword entitled “Courage,” plus Notes, Resources and Insp...

Gunnar Broberg’s The Man Who Organized Nature is a unique biography of the life of Carl Linnaeus, “a scientist but also much more—an international celebrity, the first ecologist, a visionary, a uni...