FINDINGS

U.S. Lags in Stem Cell Research

American scientists are falling behind researchers elsewhere in stem cell discoveries because of U.S. limits on the use of federal funding, a study has found.

Scientists from other countries published 40 papers on the evolving field in 2004, twice as many as Americans, the researchers wrote in the journal Nature Biotechnology. They blamed the gap on funding restrictions President Bush imposed in 2001, citing moral concerns.

"The U.S. is falling behind in the international race to make fundamental discoveries in related fields," Jennifer McCormick of Stanford University's Center for Biomedical Ethics and Jason Owen-Smith of the University of Michigan wrote in an article published today.

Scientists are pursuing research on stem cells taken from human embryos because they can develop into any cell in the body and, thus, have the potential for curing such diseases as diabetes and Parkinson's.

Blue Ring of Dust Circles Uranus

Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, has a blue outer ring made up of microscopic dust, says a report today in the journal Science.

Researchers led by University of California at Berkeley astronomy professor Imke de Pater said in a statement the planet's outermost ring probably gets its blue color because a small moon, Mab, orbits within it.

Mab's gravity sucks in larger pieces of space debris while allowing particles less than a 10th of a micron across, or about one-thousandth of the width of a human hair, to remain floating in the ring, according to study.

Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun, also has a blue ring.

-- From News Services