The James Logan Courier

By Elie Dolgin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MCT)

MILWAUKEE — Researchers are one step closer to reprogramming skin cells into tailor-made, healthy replacements for diseased cells.

Applying the technique first developed by James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, scientists at Harvard and Columbia universities reported online Thursday in the journal Science that they had turned skin cells from two elderly patients with the neurodegenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis into motor neurons, the nerve cells that become damaged in ALS.

This is the first time that scientists have coaxed embryonic-like cells from adult patients suffering from a genetic-based disease, then induced the cells to form the specific cell types that would be needed to study and treat the disease.

By Colin Covert
Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (MCT)

The rites of teen passage have inspired feature films as diverse as "American Beauty" and "American Pie." Nanette Burstein's documentary "American Teen" demonstrates that a nonfiction account of adolescence is as engrossing as any scripted drama.

"High school was a really tough time for me," said Burstein, Academy Award-nominated for her documentary about movie-studio politics, "The Kid Stays in the Picture." Her new film tracks five middle-American kids from Warsaw, Ind., through their senior year. "But it was a really formative time for me, too. I changed dramatically and developed independent spirit by the end, despite all the pressure not to. I've watched a lot of movies about young people and been entertained by some and largely dissatisfied by others. So I thought there's a need to tell these great stories that I saw, but do them with real kids and show them as complicated as they really are and break down those stereotypes."

By Robert W. Butler
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

Oh, Hannibal, you big, lovable teddy bear, you. Come give us a hug!

Yes, we Americans do love our movie villains. And the nastier the better.

You wouldn't think that in a time of terrorism and uncertainty we'd cozy up to characters that represent the worst in human nature. But just look at all the bad guys who in recent years have gone home with an Oscar:

Forest Whitaker as dictator/cannibal Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland." Sean Penn as a Boston mobster in "Mystic River." Denzel Washington as a corrupt cop in "Training Day."

From wikipedia:
Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays (ca. August 1, 1895 (?) – March 28, 1984) was an African-American minister, educator, scholar, social activist and the president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He was also a significant mentor to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and was among the most articulate and outspoken critics of segregation before the rise of the modern civil rights movement in the United States.

Benjamin Elijah Mays was born in 1895 in Ninety Six, South Carolina, the youngest of eight children; his parents were tenant farmers and former slaves. After spending a year at Virginia Union University, he moved north to attend Bates College in Maine, where he obtained his B.A. in 1920, then entered the University of Chicago as a graduate student, earning an M.A. in 1925 and a Ph.D. in the School of Religion in 1935. His education at Chicago was interrupted several times: he was ordained a Baptist minister in 1922 and accepted a pastorate at the Shiloh Baptist Church of Atlanta, then later taught at Morehouse and at South Carolina State College.

Visit the website of Morehouse College.