Life Links 12/11/08

With the recent news of Rod Blagojevich’s rub-my-back-and-I’ll-rub-yours style of politics and his belief that he was owed something (campaign contributions, etc.) by organizations and companies whom the government did business with, I’m wondering if something more than politics (i.e. $$$) was the reason for his executive order to spend $10 million of Illinois’ money on embryonic stem cell research.


Related - David Prentice lists some other actions Blagojevich has taken to promote embryonic stem cell research while in office.


Princeton Professor and prolife advocate Robert Geroge was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal yesterday.


Robert Klein’s salary for being head of CIRM (California embryonic stem cell agency) will be $150,000 for working half-time.


Researchers at Harvard have discovered that some stem cells in bone marrow divide at a much slower rate than other cells.

While researchers said they are uncertain about the significance of this new finding, Hock suggested the slower stem cell division could be a biological mechanism to preserve the integrity of the cells. Since genetic mutations accumulate as cells divide, slower division could reduce the rate of mutation, he said.