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Nature 456, 444-445 (27 November 2008) | doi:10.1038/456444a; Published online 26 November 2008

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Science, dogmas and the state

Elena Cattaneo1

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Misrepresentation of stem-cell science in Italy by political and religious groups is damaging that nation's laws and the funding and perceived value of biomedical research, argues Elena Cattaneo.

BOOK REVIEWEDStaminalia: Le Cellule Etiche e i Nemici Della Ricerca

by Armando Massarenti

Guanda: 2008. 205 pp. euro dollar14.50 (in Italian)

On 1 April 2004, Elizabeth Blackburn, co-discoverer of the telomerase enzyme, published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled 'Bioethics and the political distortion of biomedicine'. In it she reported her experience of working on, and being suddenly fired from, the US President's Council on Bioethics as it drew up its report on monitoring stem-cell research.