Stem Cell Universe with Stephen Hawking Page #3

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that we took the skin cell from.

And it's a way of showing

that the IPS cells

should be able to work as well

to make all the kinds

of cells that we want

as the embryonic stem cells can.

Kristin's work has shown

that it is possible to

manufacture embryonic stem cells

without taking them

from an embryo.

But the technique is still

very new and not without danger.

As exciting

as this technology is,

we know that there is a risk.

So it may not be time

to put IPS cells

into your own body.

Rather,

we are taking the human cells

and testing them in a dish

using as many assays as we can

and ask which tests most predict

the usefulness or danger

of a cell.

Before the stem cell

revolution can begin,

we need a safe

and uncontroversial source

of embryonic cells.

One lone scientist

has a radical idea

about where to find them

in a place nobody thought

was possible...

inside our fully grown bodies.

300 years ago,

my predecessor Isaac Newton

was inspired by an apple tree

to formulate

the theory of gravity.

Newton is long gone,

but his apple tree survives.

This tree grew from the cutting

of the original.

Stem cells in that cutting

were able to regenerate

a completely new life form.

They have the same power as

the cells in a human embryo,

a power we lose

when we are born.

But one researcher believes

that if an ancient tree

can do it, so can we.

His name is Marco Seandel

of New York's

weill Cornell Medical Center.

He's scouring the human body

for a natural alternative

to manmade embryonic stem cells.

The ideal scenario would be

is if we could take

an adult cell

where you really didn't

have to do very much to it

to get that cell to convert

into a state where it resembled

an embryonic stem cell.

You could think

of Marco like a talent scout,

searching Broadway

for a uniquely versatile actor.

So, we could think

of each of these Broadway shows

as a different organ

in the body.

And like an organ in the body,

each show has individual actors

that play different roles.

And those roles

are incredibly specialized.

So, we can't just take an actor

out of one role

and put him in another role

or ask a female chorus leader

to play king lear, for example.

So it's the same in the body.

We can't take blood cells

and expect them to make

brain cells.

And we can't take muscle cells

and expect them to make

reproductive cells.

Marco's desire

to find naturally occurring,

multi-talented adult stem cells

has left him peering

deep into the human body.

Somewhere inside it,

he believes,

there is a type of super cell

that's very similar

to an embryonic stem cell.

It may be

that there's a small population

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