blackpundit.com

LOS ANGELES - The University of Southern California has received a $25 million donation to build a stem cell research center, school officials said.

Philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad donated the money to build the Broad Institute for Integrative Biology and Stem Cell Research, officials said Thursday. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the fall.

The 215,000-square-foot facility is expected to be the largest stem cell research center in California when it opens in 2008, the university said.

I know there is a lot of controversy over stem cell research, but I am actually for it, regardless of all the abortion and moral issues. I honestly think there are ways around those issues. Hopefully in years to come, we will have a major break through with Stem Cell Research and maybe we can finally have a cure for Cancer, Parkinson disease, and the likes.

Scientist says that there were more water on mars than expected.

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) — The hills of Mars yielded more tantalizing clues about how water shaped the Red Planet in tests by NASA’s robotic geologist, Spirit, while its twin, Opportunity, observed the deep crater it climbed into two months ago, scientists said on Wednesday.

“This is different from the rocks out on the plain, where we saw coatings and veins apparently due to effects of a small amount of water. Here we have a more thorough, deeper alteration, suggesting much more water.”

Although we spend billions of tax dollars (sorry, $820 million combined cost) on a project like Opportunity and Spirit, I think it is worthwhile to explore outside of our own planet. Maybe we can then find answers to unsolved questions or maybe we find more technical advances.