Feelin’ Good About Science Today!
Nov 21st, 2007 by Micah Tillman
Stem cell breakthrough hailed as end to ethical dilemma
The dilemma, I suppose, was whether to kill people (embryos) or allow people to continue suffering from diseases that embryonic stem cell-based techniques could cure (assuming there are any).
That’s only a dilemma, of course, for pro-lifers who think embryos are people. To everybody else, the choice was obvious: People take precedence over other forms of life.
Replace “dilemma” with “debate,” therefore, and you’ve got a more accurate headline. (See here for our on-going discussion on whether embryos are people).
Proposal: Suck Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air
And suffocate all the plants! Oh. No, wait.
Seems we’ve been taught to think of the atmosphere as a landfill. What goes in is lost forever, doomed to just sit there. And there’s nothing we can do about it.
But that isn’t even true for landfills, I’ve claimed before.
Congratulations once again to the scientists (and this time, I’m not being ironic).
I, for one, am glad someone’s finally come up with a quicker way to get rid of all the pesky plants. The traditional methods have been taking far too long.
*laugh* Reminds me of the N.I.C.E. in CS Lewis’ third Space Trilogy book That Hideous Strength, who actually wanted to get rid of as much organic life as possible, and turn humans into brains-alone.