Stem cell research has been in the news for all the wrong
reasons, these last few weeks. It has been alleged that the
results of a landmark 2005 paper on production of tailored
embryonic stem cells were fabricated. A nine-member panel from
Seoul National University that has been examining the work of
celebrated scientist Hwang Woo-suk, has stated that the data in
2005 was intentionally fabricated. Hwang is best known to the
international public for leading a team that created the worlds
first cloned dog, Snuppy. However, there is also some good news
on the horizon. Australian researchers have achieved a major
breakthrough as far as plant stem cell research is concerned.
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental
Biology have uncovered a feedback mechanism, involving a growth-
enhancing hormone and a regulatory protein, which controls the
number of stem cells the plant produces. Unlike the stem cells
of animals, which can only produce specific kinds of tissue
after the animal is past its embryon