This episode is presented by eBay.

Rob, everyone loves a deal and a bargain from time to time, don't they? Absolutely, mate. And you know where you can grab a great deal? Talk to me. Where? The eBay app. Yes, you are correct. You didn't need to talk to me. I already knew it. I love eBay. When you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. there's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else.

Then when you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. There's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else. Then when you're selling, it's so simple and most

importantly, free. It's free, Rob. When it's this easy to sell for free and there's great deals

on things you love. You can't help but say when it's eBay. It excludes vehicles and business

sellers.

Welcome to Science Talk, the weekly podcast of Scientific American, posted on May 1st, 2010. I'm Steve Merski. This week on the podcast, we'll talk to Scientific American editor-in-chief Mariette

de Christina about the contents of the May issue of the magazine, and we'll test your knowledge

about some recent science in the news. So without any further ado, the cover article of the

May issue, Marriott, your inner healers reprogramming cells from your own body could give them

the therapeutic power of embryonic stem cells without, hopefully, the political

controversy. So let's talk about, you know, what's embryonic stem cells? What are these things?

And what is the potential here? Okay. So just to back up really quickly, embryonic stem cells,

which many in the listening audience I'm sure have heard of,

have been exciting to people in theory because they could present a lot of potential for cures.

The idea is this. At the embryonic stage, a cell could become any one of the 220 different types

of cells in your body. So for instance, you have bad kidneys. Maybe in theory,

you could take an embryo's stem cells and they could become kidney tissue, which then could be

used for transplantation. That's one of the many intriguing things about embryonic stem cell therapy.

They could be used to grow different kinds

of organ, other organ tissue, heart cells, nerve cells for diseases such as Parkinson's or ALS, amoeotrophic

lateral sclerosis, Lugargs disease. Many of these really currently unsolvable diseases could be addressed, in theory, with embryonic stem cells that could be made to become any number, any one of a number of 220 different kinds of cells that exist in your body.

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