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In 2004, California voters passed Proposition 71, which provided $3 billion in taxpayer-funded research support for stem cell research. The money is to be spent at a rate of $300 million per year for 10 years.

According to San Diego Union-Tribune, $614 million has been distributed in the form of research grants thus far, but none of these grants have been for projects whose goal is to create stem cells through a process known as therapeutic cloning. The problem has not been ethical opposition, or a lack of research groups requesting funds for therapeutic cloning. Rather, the research has been stopped by a shortage of women willing to donate their eggs.

Therapeutic cloning is a technique used to produce embryonic stem cells that are genetically matched to a particular recipient. Genetically matching "donor" stem cells with their recipient is important to prevent rejection by the recipient's immune system, in the same way that organ transplants must be carefully matched.

The technique starts with an unfertilized egg donated from a woman. The genetic material of the donor egg cell is removed and replaced with the genetic material of the recipient. The egg then chemically activated, making it divide to an early embryonic stage. Stem cells can then be collected that are a perfect immunological match for the recipient. The technique has been accomplished in monkeys, but never in humans (a South Korean research team's claim to have done this in 2004 was subsequently proved fraudulent). Another description of therapeutic cloning can be found at the University of Utah's genetics site.

Unfortunately, donating eggs is a somewhat lengthy and risky process, which includes taking fertility drugs and being subjected to medical procedures. Individuals who donate eggs to fertility clinics for reproductive purposes (e.g. making a baby) are usually compensated at a rate of $3,000-5,000. However, in California, egg donors for stem cell research are banned from accepting compensation, aside from reimbursement for time away from work and transportation costs. The reason for the ban is so that money will not be a factor in a person's decision to donate. Not surprisingly, there are few donors.

However, researchers have argued strongly in favor of compensating donors, leveling the field for women who donate for research versus reproductive purposes. In fact, women in the UK undergoing infertility treatments have been "encouraged" to donate eggs in exchange for discounted medical services. This approach has apparently yielded some success.

A 2007 New York Times article further explores the pros and cons of paying women for eggs.

This Scientific American article explores how magicians use the brain’s wiring to produce illusions.

For example, “change blindness” is the tendency of a viewer not to notice significant visual changes in a particular scene if they are masked by a temporary flicker, rapid movement, or other interruption (for a dramatic demonstration, watch this video). Because the pre- and post-change environments cannot be compared side by side, the changes are missed.

The article gives other neat examples, too, like the tendency of our visual system to follow movement, which can be covertly manipulated by the magician with head or hand movements.  Straight or curved hand motions affect our visual system in different ways, producing different levels of attention on the gesture.

How'd you like to go to Mars? Well, if you're in grade K-12, you have the opportunity to pick the name for NASA's next Mars rover. The winner will visit NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California for a tour and a chance to "sign" the rover headed to Mars.

NASA's Mars exploration website is here, including videos from the recent Phoenix lander mission and a history of all Mars missions.

Two groups of astronomers reported this week that, for the first time, they had directly laid eyes on planets outside our solar system. The two groups reported a total of four new "exoplanets:" three are orbiting a star 128 light years away, and another orbits a star 25 light years away. Given that 1 light year is approximately 5.9 trillion miles, these planets won't be visited any time soon.

Planets orbiting distant stars are difficult to see because the parent star's bright light overwhelms any reflected light that the planet may direct towards earth.  Although more than 300 exoplanets have been identified, their existence to date has been inferred by indirect means - for example, by observing a planet's effect on other celestial objects (stars, dust rings), or their ability to block light as they pass in front of a star.

Being able to directly image other planets will allow astronomers to determine their chemical composition and perhaps infer whether they could support life. For the current discovery, none of the four are believed to have life-friendly conditions.

A photo of the three-planet system can be found at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory website.