Like Covenant Seminary, Reformed Theological Seminary has a large number of free course lectures available for free download through iTunes mp3 podcasts.

Find them here.

Source: Reuters.

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Two separate teams of researchers announced on Tuesday they had transformed ordinary skin cells into batches of cells that look and act like embryonic stem cells — but without using cloning technology and without making embryos.

Their breakthroughs could make possible the long-sought goal of tailor-made medicine, but without the political, scientific and ethical roadblock of using human embryos.

Both teams call the new cells induced pluripotent stem cells and say they look and act like embryonic stem cells — the master cells that give rise to every cell and tissue in the body.

“We can now envisage a time when a simple approach can be used to produce stem cells that are able to form any tissue from a small sample taken from any of us,” Ian Wilmut of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement.

“This will have enormous implications for research and perhaps one day for therapy,” added Wilmut, who helped clone the first mammal, Dolly the sheep, in 1997.

James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin in Madison and colleagues reported their finding in the journal Science while Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan and colleagues reported theirs in the journal Cell.

Both teams used just four genes to transform ordinary skin cells called fibroblasts into induced pluripotent stem cells — iPS cells for short.

“We are now in a position to be able to generate patient- and disease- specific stem cells, without using human eggs or embryos,” Yamanaka said in a statement.

FOUR GENES

“These cells should be useful in understanding disease mechanisms, searching for effective and safe drugs, and treating patients with cell therapy,” he added.

“By introducing four genes (OCT4, NANOG, SOX2 and LIN28), into human fibroblasts, stem cells sharing essentially all features of human ES cells were obtained,” Thomson’s team wrote in their report in Science.

“Similar to human embryonic cells, human iPS cells should prove useful for studying the development and function of human tissues, for discovering and testing new drugs, and for transplantation medicine,” added Thomson, whose team first discovered human embryonic stem cells in 1998.

Yamanaka’s team used a slightly different cocktail of genes — OCT3/4, SOX2, C-MYC, and KLF4 — to get their iPS cells.

Both teams said the new cells are not ready to use in people yet because they used a type of virus called a retrovirus to carry the new genes into the skin cells. It is not clear whether this virus might cause genetic mutations that could cause cancer or other side effects.

“More research is necessary to determine how closely related these cells are to embryonic stem cells, but these methods should be useful for developing disease models and for drug development,” Thomson’s team wrote.

Yamanaka said the new technology might still raise some red flags for some people.

“Our technology, however, create a new ethical concerns. It might be possible to generate sperm and eggs from skin cells, via iPS cells. This might help people with infertility problem, but it will be essential to have a proper regulation regarding the generation and usage of human iPS cells to avoid misusages of this technology,” he said.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Jim Wallace, who has appeared on the Stand to Reason radio show, has an excellent apologetics podcast, including great information regarding Mormonism. You can subscribe to the RSS feed or download individual episodes here: Please Convince Me Podcast.

One note: There are some “mobile podcasts” where Jim recorded the episode while driving. Although a great use of his time, the background noise can be a bit distracting

There is also a blog here.

Dr. William Lane Craig has a podcast concerning Christian apologetics and theology, along many of the topics in his book, Reasonable Faith. Both of these resources are highly recommended. Unlike the more commercially-produced Reasonable Faith podcast, this one includes recordings from his Sunday School class.

Defenders Podcast.

Anthony was a selfish hermit. Instead of staying within society to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), he withdrew to a life of solitude. Although his intention was to get closer to God, he actually got further from God by abandoning His people (Psalm 133:1). The hermits saw the German invasions occurring at the time as a judgment of God so instead of seeing the evangelism opportunity that the bishop of Rome eventually recognized (even for selfish motives), Anthony and the hermits ran away to live in caves and be “holy.”

It is unfortunate that many felt that the hermits received special revelation from God in their solitude and began visiting them for advice, as if God is not powerful enough to give us a message unless we are being really holy and quietly listening. Although meditating to hear God’s voice is popular in our culture, I am not aware of any place in the Bible where God was trying to talk to someone, but that person was not paying attention so God could not get His message through. Imagine the silliness of thinking that God wanted to tell Noah to build an ark, but whenever He tried, Noah was just too busy.

Pachomius, though, saw the value of community, but still encouraged withdrawal from society. The purpose was to still get holier by getting away from the society that we are commanded to evangelize. The positive aspects of this community were accountability and encouragement. If one is alone, there is no one there watching over you or assisting you through troubles. What a glorious blessing it would have been if these monks even more actively blessed secular society. One could be not like the world, but still live in it. One does not have to live a life of poverty to be holy or to cure materialism. This form of monasticism feels almost Pharasaic.

The best value that a contemporary Christian can discover through the study of these forms of monasticism is not to do it. To do so abandons our evangelistic calling and may open the door works-based salvation.