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Group members look to expressive leaders to "get things done".
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Last year, when President George W. Bush announced that federal funds could be used to support re search on human embryonic stem cells, he mandated that only those cell lines that existed at the time would qualify for such support. More than a year later it's becoming increasingly clear that these existing cell lines are inadequate. Unless more are created, the research slowdown may exact a staggering cost in terms of human suffering.
Since this announcement, the U. S National Institutes of Health has tried to stimulate research on the existing cell lines with new funding and efforts to streamline the initially cumbersome process of obtaining approved cells. However, whether there are 60 cell lines, as originally stated, or nine, as now appear to be available to NIH-funded investigators, the number is not adequate. Given the genetic diversity within the population, scientists need access to new cell lines if they are to come up with the most effective cell therapies.
The issue is partly one of safety. In conducting research with human participants, we must minimize risks. The most effective cell line might not be the safest. When developing a new medicine, a large number of molecules must be screened to find a balance between effectiveness and safety. The same is true with cells: In the context of cell therapy, it will be important to minimize unwanted immune reactions and inflammation. This requires selection from a large number of cell lines to obtain the best match.
It's clear from experiments with animals that stem--cell therapies can reduce human suffering. Parkinsonian mice have been cured with embryonic stem cells that were programmed to become dopamine-secreting, replacement nerve cells. Soon, cells induced to make insulin in tissue cultures will be used in attempts to treat diabetic mice. Similar successes have been achieved in animal models of spinal cord injury, heart failure and other degenerative disorders. We are at a frontier in medicine where tissues will be re stored in ways that were not imaginable just a few years ago. The ethical issues raised by human-embryo research are profound. The human costs of restricting this research must be taken into account as well. The cost in dollars of delaying new stem-cell research is difficult to estimate. It might measure in the hundreds of billions of dollars, especially if one adds the lost productivity of individuals who must leave work to care for victims of degenerative disorders.
A less obvious, but real, cost is the damage to the fabric of America's extraordinary culture of inquiry and technical development in biomedical science. Our universities and teaching hospitals are unparalleled. We attract the very best students, scientists and physicians from around the world. But these institutions are fragile. Research and education play key roles in attracting the best physicians. A crippled research enterprise might add an unbearable stress with long-lasting effects on the entire system. If revolutionary new therapies are delayed or outlawed, we could be set back for years, if not decades.
To steer clear of controversy, some investigators will redirect their research. Others will emigrate to countries where such research is allowed and encouraged. Some will drop out entirely. The pall cast over the science community could extend far beyond stem-cell research. Many therapies have emerged from collaboration between government-sponsored researchers and private enterprise. Few of these discoveries would have emerged ii, for instance, recombinant DNA research had been outlawed 30 years ago. We face the same type of decision today with limits placed on human embryonic stem cells.
Safeguards will be necessary. But if we do not proceed embracing the values of objective, open, inquiry with complete sharing of methods and results, the field will be left to less rigorous fringe groups here and abroad. Patients and s
听力原文： The front-runner in the presidential election in Haiti Rene Preval has accused the electoral authorities of committing fraud in an attempt to stop him winning outright. With almost all the votes counted, Mr. Preval is just short of the majority needed to avoid a second round. Two people were killed during unrest in the city. The United Nations Security Council has called for calm and extended the mandate of its peace mission in Haiti by six months. According to official election figures with around 90 per cent of the votes counted, Rene Preval is just short of the 50 per cent he needs to avoid a second round runoff. Speaking in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, he said he'd seen gross errors and probably gigantic fraud. Claiming a first round victory, he urged his supporters to keep up protests, but he also called them on to be mature, responsible and non-violent.
If Rene Preval's supporters exceeded 50% of the total voters, he would ______.
听力原文： The United States has strongly criticized the broadcast of previously unseen images of alleged prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. The images, which show prisoners apparently being tortured and humiliated, have been shown on television stations across the world. The American Defense Department confirmed the authenticity of the pictures, but said releasing them could only serve to incite unnecessary violence. The American authorities are very unhappy that these new disturbing images from Abu Ghraib have seen the light of day. The State Department has dismissed them as disgusting and defended the US government's decision to try and stop their publication.
Which of the following statements about the American Defense Department is TRUE？
Affirmative action may not be the most divisive issue on the ballot, but it remains an unending source of conflict and debate at least in Michigan, whose citizens are pondering a proposal that would ban affirmative action in the public sector. No one knows whether other states will follow Michigan's lead, but partisans on both sides see the vote as crucial--a decision that could either help or hinder a movement aimed at ending "preferential treatment" programs once and for all.
Ward Connerly has no doubts about the outcome. "Them may be some ups and downs.., with regard to affirmative action, but it's ending," .says Connerly, the main mover behind the Michigan proposal, who pushed almost identical propositions to passage in California 10 years ago and in Washington state two years later. His adversaries are equally passionate. "I just want to shout from the rooftops, 'This isn't good for America'," says Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan. She sees no need for Michigan to adopt the measure. "We have a living experiment in California, and it has failed," says Coleman.
Wade Henderson, executive director of the leadership Conference on Civil Rights, sees something deeply symbolic in the battle. Michigan, in his eyes, is where resegregation began--with a 1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision that tossed out a plan to bus Detroit children to the suburbs. Henderson sees that decision as a prelude to the hypersegregation that now defines much of Michigan. The Supreme Court is currently considering two new cases that could lead to another ruling on how far public school systems can go in their quest to maintain racial balance.
All of which raises a question: why are we still wrestling with this stuff？ Why, more than a quarter of a century after the high court ruled race had a legitimate place in university admissions decisions, are we still fighting over whether race should play a role？
One answer is that the very idea of affirmative action--that is, systematically treating members of various groups differently in the pursuit of diversity or social justice--strikes some people as downright immoral. For to believe in affirmative action is to believe in a concept of equality turned upside down. It is to believe that "to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently," as the idea was expressed by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun.
That argument has never been an easy sell, even when made passionately by President Lyndon B. Johnson during an era in which prejudice was thicker than L. A. smog. Now the argument is infinitely more difficult to make. Even those generally supportive of affirmative action don't like the connotations it sometimes carries. "No one wants preferential treatment, including African-Americans," observed Ed Sarpolis, vice president of EPIC-MRA, a Michigan polling firm.
In 2003, the Supreme Court upheld the University of Michigan's right to use race in the pursuit of "diversity," even as it condemned the way the undergraduate school had chosen to do so. The decision left Jennifer Gratz, the named plaintiff, fuming. "I called Ward Connerly... and I said, 'We need to do something about this'," recalled Gratz, an animated former cheerleader. They decided that if the Supreme Court wouldn't give them what they wanted, they would take their case--and their proposition--directly to the people.
Californians disagree about the impact of Connerly's proposition on their state. But despite some exceedingly grim predictions, the sky did not fall in. Most people went about their lives much as they always had.
In a sane world, the battle in Michigan, and indeed the battle over affirmative action writ large, would offer an opportunity to seriously engage a question the enemies and defenders of affirmative action claim to care about; how do you go about creating a society where all people--not just the lucky few--have th
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