5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Struggling to Understand This Book, January 23, 2007
As a person who never studied high school level biology I find this book extremely difficult to follow. A solid background in chemistry seems necessary to fully grasp the concepts being discussed, so I was surprised that the Introduction claims it could be used as a middle-school textbook. Excerpt: "Binding of the dimerized growth factor then stimulates dimerization of the receptor. Dimerization of the receptor activates its own kinase domain, located inside the cell. The receptor, in turn, phosphorylates cytoplasmic signaling proteins that stimulate cell growth, differentiation, and proliferation. Each growth factor binds to its own specific receptor, which activates a unique set of signaling molecules." Are you getting this? Much new terminology is introduced on each page of the science sections - it is a very dense read. It is, however, full of information, if one is able to decipher it.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Filled with information, November 16, 2006
What are you passionate about? Within many topics there is a certain amount of controversy. In order to have a respectable opinion on any controversial issue, you must know what exactly is in conflict on that particular issue and also have a reasonable amount of background issue to base your beliefs off of and provide evidence of them. If you are interested in stem cell research, a great book for learning the necessary info would be Stem Cell Research: Medical Applications & Ethical Controversy by Joseph Panno, Ph. D. In this review, you will find a chapter by chapter outline of what excelled as well as what was flawed, some background information about the author, as well as other general thoughts and the book's relevance to current events.
The book begins with an introduction to exactly what stem cells are. This is a great place for the book to start as it not only lays down a foundation for the arguments and information that are going to be presented later on in the book, but also introduces stem cells and their ethical controversies to those that may not be entirely familiar with the topic. There are also many helpful diagrams throughout this chapter introducing the names of different cells which will be important in later chapters.
The second chapter deals with human stem cells. This chapter seems more designed for a science buff looking more for info on the scientific aspects of this topic than the ethical ones. Much of the info in this chapter was relatively useless to someone concerned with the ethical controversy and there were many large words and scientific terms that were difficult to keep track of. This however does not make it a bad chapter to all, just les useful to some than others.
The third chapter offers excellent insight on the types of diseases that could be cured using stem cell therapy and how stem cells could cure them. For a book that offers such raw information, it is difficult to not be at least a little intrigued by this information. Whether this is the writing style or just the nature of the info is difficult to say, but the impact is there. This chapter provides quite possibly the strongest argument for those in support of stem cell research.
Chapter four speaks of the commercialization of stem cells. This regards where stem cell research gets its funding more than anything. One may initially wonder why this information is pertinent. When taken into consideration, however, the fact that much of the ethical controversy surrounding the topic comes from the debate over how much government funding should be allocated for the research, then funding becomes a very important issue indeed. There is a lot of info in this chapter one may not have previously thought of, such as ulterior motives of pharmaceutical companies as well as specific examples, such as stock market woes of companies such as Aastrom Biosciences Inc. where a failure to yield results resulted in the decline of shareholder's confidence and eventual decline in value.(p.52)
Chapter five hits directly on many of the difficulties of stem cell research and how its potential may be exaggerated by researchers. The biggest problem deals with the immune system's adverse reaction to foreign stem cells and how many scientists skew reports by using rats that have been genetically engineered to have no immune systems so they accept their stem cells implants. (p. 60) This chapter is a good counterweight to the previous chapter and really points out that the author has a realistic and neutral view on the topic, which is important for writing a definitive informational book on a topic involving ethical controversy.
Chapter six details the ethical controversies of stem cell research. There are many such controversies and involved and it seems as though all the major ones are covered in this section. He does have a tendency to make those opposed to stem cell research sound more ignorant than those in support of it. This could however just be the way I viewed the passages entailed while I was reading them, reflecting my own personal bias on the subject. The one flaw with this chapter would have to be how he often refers to the next chapter on Judicial rulings he mentions in this chapter. This creates distractions from the reading and this chapter and the next chapter probably would have worked better together combined as one rather than separate.
The final chapter in this book deals with the laws that have been passed as well as some of the finer point of debate on the topic. The laws brought up are clear and definitive without being overly wordy, e.g. specific segments of the debate are left out in favor of the conclusions in various courts across the U.S. and Europe.
This book was published in 2005, so it is only a year old and virtually all relevant information is still pertinent within the ethical debates and also within the scientific community to this day. The fact that it analyzed not only what both sides have to say about the controversy in general, but also the laws that were passed regarding them and in several different countries no less was truly beyond expectations. Additionally, the author has solid credentials on the subject so one can feel secure in the accuracy of the info. "Joseph Panno, Ph.D., holds a degree in biology from Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, and specializes in molecular biology and physiology. He has taught a variety of undergraduate biology courses and published in numerous peer-reviewed publications including Cytometry and Molecular Brain Research." (1) He also has recently published an entire series of books involving current biological issues, Stem Cell Research: Medical Applications & Ethical Controversy being volume one in "The New Biology" series.
As a general rule when choosing a book, you must choose what you hope to get out of the book. This book offers a broad topic in its title, Stem Cell Research: Medical Applications & Ethical Controversy. As a result, one would expect to find a wealth of information regarding this subject in a book with such a title, and the book doesn't fail to live up to such a lofty claim. Therefore, if one were to decide that they wanted to become very knowledgeable on all matters involving stem cells in 90 pages, this book would not disappoint. The book doesn't offer opinion pieces on the subject however, but the reading of opinion pieces on a subject should generally be viewed as inferior when viewed in contrast against raw information and being given the opportunity to freely make one's own mind up about an issue.
Basically, this book is great for anyone who is interested in stem cell research and has very few flaws to be concerned about. Every chapter provides solid information, it is all up to date, and you'd be hard pressed to find a more qualified author. In the end, how you use this information is up to you.
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