Stem Cell Research!

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1912375,00.html

The above article was published in TIME. It talks about a research group producing mice from stem cells that have not been talked about too much.
Stem cells are cells that have the ability to differentiate into specialized cells (for instance erythrocytes/red blood cells) and also have the ability to renew themselves through mitotic division. Most of the stem cell talk in the news has been about embryonic stem cells. These source for these cells is the blastocyst (or early embryo). These cells come at the risk of the embryo itself...which is why the issue is so controversial. These cells are totipotent and have the ability to become an individual.
The cells used in this experiment however are adult stem cells which were induced or reprogrammed to grow into mice. This is great because adult stem cells are multipotent; while they can give rise to other cells, they are limited to what type of cells they can give rise to. So for these cells to be able to give rise to an organism is fascinating. It must be stressed that I do not condone the "cloning" aspect of this experiment. However I do condone the significance of being able to treat many of the diseases that humans suffer (ex. Parkinson's disease). Read the article to get more info =)