Generally I have found the media pretty servile in their coverage of stem cells: they cannot mention adult stem cells without saying that some people do not think them as versatile as embryonic stem cells, even though adult stem cells have treated patients successfully and embryonic stem cells have yet to do so anywhere. There is also the fact that you see people like Christopher Reeve and Michael J. Fox pressing hard to get funding for embryonic research, implying that wondrous cures are just around the corner if only obstructive politicians would get out of the way. This is despite the fact that this technology is, well, pretty embryonic itself, and candid scientists will admit that we're decades from any real treatment from embryonic cells.
Well, in the wake of Mr. Reagan's passing, Wired and the Washington Post have more honest appraisals of what embryonic cells could really do for Alzheimer's disease. The Post is particularly valuable in that they bring attention to the fact that Alzheimer's destroys the architecture of the brain—how can one unscramble an egg, and even if you do replace the tissue with normal brain tissue, will the patient still have his or her own personality and memories? Perhaps even more importantly, the Post shows how scientists and celebrities have manipulated the public in order to get more funding—for this and other examples of journalistic objectivity that I rarely see in papers like the NY Times, I am becoming quite a fan of the Washington Post!
I just read an excellent story ("Presence", by Maureen F. McHugh) about a near-future family, where a wife watches her husband change after an experimental Alzheimer's treatment, and it deals with just this question, how regenerating someone's brain will inevitably alter their personality. You can read "Presence" and a number of other excellent stories in Gardner Dozois' Twentieth Annual The Year's Best Science Fiction. It is a very sensitive story about a woman's courage and love in dealing with a horrible illness that took her husband.
Jerry
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