Breaking Through

The opening ceremony of the World Stem Cell Hub was held last month at Seoul National University Hospital, in an aging lecture hall equipped with worn, wooden desks and iron reading lamps. While the setting was antiquated, the occasion was 21st century all the way. South Korea's stem-cell "bank" will offer cloned embryonic-stem-cell lines to researchers around the world hoping to devise revolutionary treatments for ailments such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease. The guests squeezed into the hall included South Korea's President Roh Moo Hyun and leading lights in the field of cloning and stem-cell research, such as Ian Wilmut, the...