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Editor's note
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Clinics in the UK are offering stem cell “therapy” for children with autism. The procedure involves taking stem cells from young children’s bone marrow or fat tissue and injecting it into the child’s bloodstream. The hope – and it is just a hope – is that the stem cells will replace the faulty cells in the affected organs. But as Darius Widera, an expert in stem cells, points out, you first need to know what causes a condition before you can treat it with stem cells. And little is known about the exact type of nerve cells implicated in autism.
Widera says the cellular complexity in autism makes designing a stem cell treatment “more than challenging”. Although this type of treatment may one day be effective, that day is still a long way off. In the meantime, desperate parents are paying around £10,000 for a treatment that has no scientific evidence to back it.
If you live in the south of England, you might have noticed that the sky was exceptionally blue on Monday. This is because the atmospheric pressure reached the highest level since records began in 1692. And, as the fallout over actor Laurence Fox’s remarks about racism and white privilege rages unabated, we look at inequality in the entertainment business.
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Clint Witchalls
Health + Medicine Editor
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Top stories
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ZouZou
Darius Widera, University of Reading
To successfully treat people with stem cells, you first need to know which cells are faulty.
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Jan Duplnszki/Shutterstock
Stephen Burt, University of Reading
Humans are not very sensitive to changes in air pressure, but they can have a big effect on the weather.
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Ian West/PA Wire/PA Images
Beth Johnson, University of Leeds
Race, gender and social class still play a massive part in deciding who gets ahead in film, TV and radio.
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Health + Medicine
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Maarten Wensink, University of Southern Denmark
And why the gap may soon be closing in some countries.
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Michael Lucock, University of Huddersfield
How a technique to instil healthy habits can prevent those recovering from depression from relapsing.
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David Rogerson, Sheffield Hallam University
One hypothesis suggests that there's a finite amount of protein that the body can actually use.
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Politics + Society
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Richard Sambrook, Cardiff University
As the BBC starts its search for the next director general, it faces multiple problems, but there is also opportunity.
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Tony Robertson, University of Stirling; Sandra Engstrom, University of Stirling
When people are invested in one another and share a sense of place, they can respond to terrible events in admirable, courageous ways.
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Science + Technology
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Simon Coghlan, University of Melbourne; Kobi Leins, University of Melbourne
Xenobots have been called the world's first "living robots". They are made entirely of living tissue, and can be programmed to move towards a certain object.
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Chico Q. Camargo, University of Oxford
Scientists are arguing over how YouTube might help turn people into extremists.
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Arts + Culture
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Thomas Allen, Manchester Metropolitan University
Rackets have come a long way since the first tennis tournaments.
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