Episode Details

Every one of the roughly thirty-seven trillion cells in your body traces back to a handful of unspecialised cells that could become anything. Those are stem cells, and their remarkable flexibility has made them one of the most promising — and most over-hyped — frontiers in medicine. This episode separates the real science from the marketing.

You'll come away understanding what makes a stem cell special, the difference between embryonic and adult stem cells, the breakthrough of reprogramming ordinary cells, and where the genuine therapies end and the hype begins.

Talking Science is sponsored by Kinsoft. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au

Further reading: International Society for Stem Cell Research – "A Closer Look at Stem Cells"; Nature – "Induced pluripotent stem cells"; Australian Government NHMRC – stem cell information.