Despite strict disclosure policies, some authors writing for highly respected medical journals still keep their financial interests to themselves, according to a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based pressure group. After researching the financial connections of the authors of 163 articles in four journals, the CSPI found that 13 (8%) failed to comply with disclosure policies. The authors of one paper on coronary heart disease were consultants to more than 20 companies in the field, but failed to disclose them. However, the situation actually may be improving. In 2001, only 1% of papers disclosed a conflict, a figure which has apparently risen to 20% currently.

One of the objections to the promise of adult stem cells is that they do not actually transform themselves into heart, brain, blood or liver cells but rather fuse with other cells. However, a researcher at Yale University in the US has found that bone-marrow derived stem cells can form tissues other than blood without fusion.

In an ingenious experiment, two strains of genetically-engineered mice were created whose cells would produce a glowing green jellyfish protein if fusion occurred. Male bone marrow was then transplanted into a female. Two to three months later, they found differentiated cells from the donor in the lungs, livers and skins of the female -- and none of them glowed green. "We wouldn't argue that fusion never occurs," says one of the researchers on Krause's team. But "fusion is not absolutely required" for bone marrow to turn into non-blood cells.

 A German neo-Nazi has used an English shelf company to set up a racially-pure Aryan baby farm in a quiet commuter suburb near Bremen. The company, the Wilhelm Tietjen Foundation for Fertilisation Ltd, "aims to help childless couples produce children" with the help of surrogate mothers, says the organiser, Jurgen Riegen, a lawyer who has become notorious for defending members of the German far right.

Local townsfolk are outraged. "At first, we thought he was merely planning to develop agricultural fertilisers and manure," said the mayor of Doerverden. "We didn't realise human fertilisation is intended." The foundation is named after a Bremen schoolteacher who made a fortune on the stock market and set up a fertility research organisation to further Nordic races before his death in 2002. Mr Tietjen was infertile.

 One of the world's leading medical journals, The Lancet, has launched a campaign for human embryonic stem cell research as the UN approaches a debate on a cloning ban and US voters go to the polls. Its current issue is dedicated almost solely to medical, scientific and regulatory issues surrounding stem cells, with an editorial urging scientists to lobby hard for the cause. It also includes a profile of Australian stem cell scientist Alan Trounson and a personal plea from the father of a paralysed footballer. Ironically, the journal's press release highlighted only progress in the field of adult stem cell research. However, the editorial declared that clinical applications for embryonic stem cells are around the corner.

"The attention focused on stem-cell research unfortunately comes at a moment when there are few tangible clinical benefits to report, although, as many of the papers in this week's issue show, the field is advancing at such velocity that this evidence may not be far off," it argues. "Stem-cell researchers and other proponents are faced with a challenge: how to win back support for this important work with only promises to bargain with?"

The ethics of stem cell research was not covered in great depth. An American bioethicist, Carol Tauer, of the University of Minnesota, who is also an ethics consultant for the first company to clone a human embryo, Advanced Cell Technology, argues that a ban on reproductive cloning should not be linked to a ban on research cloning, as Bush administration has done. Each issue should be debated on its own merits. Given the current impasse on research cloning, the best option for the United Nations and the European Union seems to be a ban on reproductive cloning and silence on research cloning, she contends.

However, her views on reproductive cloning hardly represent mainstream thinking. The only unassailable objections to reproductive cloning are based on the safety of the child, she says. She appears to believe that the ban on reproductive cloning ought to be temporary, as there may be well-founded reasons to lift it once it become safe.

 Two articles in the current issue of The Lancet highlight possible therapeutic uses of adult stem cells. In a German study, adult stem cells derived from bone marrow improved cardiac functioning after heart attacks.

Helmut Drexler, of the University of Freiburg, found that the transfer of patients' own bone-marrow cells could improve functioning of the left ventricle of the heart six months after treatment. Patients who had been given stem-cell transfers had around a 7% improvement in left ventricular function compared with only a 0?7% increase for patients given drugs.

In a second study, skin cells were turned into brain cells, raising hopes of finding a stem cell cure for Parkinson's disease which is ethically non-controversial. Siddharthan Chandran, of Cambridge University generated nerve precursor cells in a two-step process. Growth factors generated almost limitless numbers of stem cells which were then made into nerve cells.

The annual meeting of the British Medical Association defeated a motion that policy statements on controversial issues should be decided at the annual meeting rather than in its ethics committee. According to the BMJ, "there was a general feeling that the committee lacked transparency and was remote from the membership".

Dr Greg Gardner, a general practitioner from Birmingham, cited approval given by the BMA's ethics committee to the UK's fertility authority and also to artificial reproduction by same sex couples. "The ethics committee may be in close touch with the HFEA (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority) but it is out of touch with ordinary BMA members," he complained.

However, his proposal was opposed by all other speakers. A member of the ethics committee, Dr Tony Calland, praised it as one of the jewels of the BMA. "The knowledge, experience and wisdom of the invited members is second to none," he said.

In other developments at the BMA meeting, the UK government was told that it had a "moral duty" to ban smoking in public places. "In recent years, laws on drink-driving and safety belts have turned out to be both effective and popular, and it's time for the government to show the same leadership on smoking, obesity and sexual health," said the head of science and ethics at the BMA, Dr Vivienne Nathanson. The BMA also reiterated its view that sperm donors should be given anonymity, in the face of a government decision to remove anonymity from April 2005. It predicts that the number of sperm donors will fall.

 More than 4,000 scientists, including 48 Nobel laureates and 127 members of the National Academy of Sciences have signed a letter accusing the Bush administration of imposing a conservative political ideology on American science. The same letter was released in February by an environmental lobby group, the Union of Concerned Scientists, with only 62 names. Their opponents, however, counter that government-funded science has always been politicised and that it is odd for scientists to be running a highly politicised campaign against politicised science.

Many of the scientist complain that they deserved to be appointed to important government boards and panels because of their eminent professional standing. However they had been passed over because they opposed President Bush on issues like abortion, stem cell research, the morning-after pill or environmental regulation. Janet Rowley, an Australian scientist who was dropped without sufficient explanation from the President's Council on Bioethics, charged that the Bush administration had exaggerated the usefulness of adult stem cells.

The Democrats are wooing the science vote by painting themselves as champions of stem cell research. Senator Kerry has promised to "lift the barriers that stand in the way of stem cell research". However, the mainspring of his bioethical vision is far from clear. This week he told an Iowa newspaper that although he favours abortion rights he still believes that life begins at conception. His campaign spokeswoman said that this idea was news to her.

Cells from babies live on in their mothers for her lifetime and could even prolong it, US researchers at Tufts-New England Medical Center have found. Foetal cells which appear to act like adult stem cells have been found in the livers, thyroids and spleens of women who have been pregnant. The discovery could influence the American debate about embryonic stem cells because these extremely rare cells appear to migrate to diseased organs and help to heal them.

"If we can prove these are stem cells, and harvest them from the blood or tissue of a woman who's been pregnant, they could have therapeutic potential for that woman, her children, and perhaps even unrelated individuals," says Dr Diana Bianchi. "Pregnancy lasts a lifetime," she says, "and you carry mementos of your children wherever you go."

Singapore's dreams of becoming a world-class research hub for biotechnology are being tarnished by a dispute over the sacking of a UK scientist who used to head its National Neuroscience Institute. In 2002 Dr Simon Shorvon was accused of conducting tests without the proper consent of the patients involved and over whether ethics committees had been kept fully informed.

However, the UK-based Medical Protection Society has rejected all charges of professional misconduct on his behalf and three leading UK medical experts said that he acted ethically at all times. One of them, Professor Peter Sever, of Imperial College London, called upon the Royal College of Physicians to warn its members of the dangers of working in Singapore.

Biotechnology is a pillar of Singapore's vision for its future and Singaporean bureaucrats are keen to maintain its professional reputation. "It is important that we get this right, that outsiders see us as a place beyond reproach, where international best practices are followed," says Manu Bhaskaran, head of economic research for the Centennial Group.