stem cells

• embryonic stem cells can turn into any type of cell
• stem cells can divide to produce more stem cells, or differentiate into different types of cells
• stem cells are found in early human embryos
• adults also have stem cells, but they're only found in certain areas, like the bone marrow
• unlike embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells can't turn into any cell type - only certain ones, like red blood cells
• stem cells can be used to treat diseases
• in therapeutic cloning, an embryo could be made to have the same genetic information as the patient, meaning that the stem cells produced from it would also contain the same genes and wouldn't be rejected
• some people are against stem cell research as they feel that human embryos shouldn't be used for experiments since each one is a potential human life
• stem cells can produce identical plants
• in plants, stem cells are found in the meristems
• plant stem cells can be used to produce clones of whole plants quickly and cheaply
• plant stem cells can be used to grow more plants of rare species
• stem cells can also be used to grow crops of identical plants that have desired features, e.g. disease resistance