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Stem Cell Symphony: A Novel

by Ricki Lewis

Ricki Lewis has been known to biology teachers for quite a while - as the author of the BEST genetics textbook around. She caught the "genetics" bug in 1978, and has been a major player in helping the public understand the nature of genetics, stem cell research, etc. through her writings for Nature, Discover, The Scientist and many other publications. Following the death of her parents, she felt the driving need to volunteer as a hospice worker, as others did for her father. Her first patient was a Huntington Disease patient - a perfect match. Ricki has been passionate about that disease since it caught her attention in the media in the late seventies, having received letters from Marjorie and Arlo Guthrie and others for helping spread the news about research for HD.

Ricki is now very passionate about clearing the misunderstandings surrounding stem cells. This novel, while it is fiction, does just that. In a late scene in the novel, her central character (Kelsey) testifies before the senate committee hearings about stem cell research and the treatment of Parkinson disease, HD, diabetes, and others. While the fiction comes in with a working cure using music to stimulate existing neuronal stem cells to "working" cells, the message is loud and clear - research needs to happen.

I find myself explaining stem cells at least once a week to my students. They are told from pulpits that these cells come from aborted fetuses. We biology teachers know this is not so - that the cells in question come from the "left-overs" from in vitro fertilization, to be frozen, then destroyed years down the road when not needed any more. These cells have never seen the inside of a uterus! Some opponents say using stem cells is "playing God," but don't seem to have qualms about the other playing God - the IVF itself, giving families children they would not have otherwise. So, the fence straddlers control it all. Our nation's lack of scientific literacy is causing the problem. How can we, as science teachers, address this - if indeed we should? You know this is a treacherous topic in Mississippi, just as evolution is. Let's just do our best. Work hard out there in the trenches!

To order the book, visit stemcellsymphony.com

Ricki also has lesson plans and articles which can be used independently of the novel, but I think you will enjoy it and it will definitely give you ammunition to deal with the ignorance in our society.

http://stemcellsymphony.com/default4.asp

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