What chance have ordinary mortals of finding out the status quo in stem cell research when powerful personalities have the ear of the media and science journals? Currently there are 3 stem cell candidates for cures, drug discovery and genetic research – human embryonic stem cells (hESC), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), and adult stem cells. Only hESCs are entangled in ethical controversy because they are obtained by dicing up human embryos. Some kinds of adult stem cells show clinical promise, although none is available for the public. Each kind has its champions, but more and more researchers are turning to iPS cells and adult stem cells. Even though sulphurous debates were held over the ethics of using hESCs and legislation was changed in many countries to allow scientists to use them, their star seems to be fading.

This month, hESC defenders have staged a bare-knuckle public relations fightback.

In the London Times, Thomas Okarma, CEO of Geron, the only listed company doing research in hESCs, told journalist Mark Henderson that iPS cells were vastly over-rated.

“iPS cells have been talked up as therapy by people with no experience of developing therapies. There is simply no business model for getting treatments based on your own cells into your body. The degree of difficulty in getting regulatory approval is just too great when you’re making new therapeutic cells from scratch every time.”

Okarma is a canny operator. A Geron clinical trial with hESCs was given FDA approval within days after President Obama’s inauguration and his repudiation of the Bush policy on stem cells. It turns out that Geron engineered the timing of the approval to create a huge wave of publicity. Geron needs good publicity, as none of its many announcements that human trials are imminent have proved true.

In another public relations coup, Newsweek’s Sharon Begley interviewed Robert Lanza, a leading figure in hESC research. He works for Advanced Cell Technology, a company which claimed to have cloned a human being in 2001. He also rubbished the potential of iPS cells. His experience has been that iPS cells age early and are vastly inferior to hESCs. "This whole population of cells is screwed up,” he said. Cures will be impossible if iPS cells age prematurely, and they will also be useless for drug discovery.

Dr Lanza is an interesting figure. His personal website describes him as “one of the leading scientists in the world” and repeats Discovery magazine’s description of him as “the Bill Gates of science”. He describes his latest book, Biocentrism, as “a simple yet radical idea shakes the very foundations of knowledge”, that “consciousness creates reality”. In an article written with the New Age guru Deepak Chopra, he says that biocentrism makes Darwinism outdated. Yet the media never asks him about his drift into New Age spirituality.

Finally, the head of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Alan Trounson, one of the world’s leading cheerleaders for hESCs, and 2 colleagues have interviewed Stephen Bellamy, an Anglican priest in the latest issue of the journal Stem Cells. Rev Bellamy is a strong defender of hESC research and pre-natal genetic diagnosis. The main point of the interview is to give an overtly Christian theological justification for research on human embryos. It must be the first time that stem cell theology has featured in a science journal:

“As an evangelical Christian, I hold a high view of the authority of scripture. The Bible teaches about the value, in God's eyes, of prenatal life developing in the womb but does not and cannot directly address the situation of our having the remarkable power and responsibility of dealing with preimplantation, or in vitro embryos.”

Ultimately, which type of stem cells will be useful will be thrashed out in laboratories, not in the media. But regulation and government funding probably depend more on the media. This month the supporters of hESC research have showed that they are far from a spent force. They kicked goals.