Geron-imo!

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NEW YORK: Another issue of Science, another biotech blockbuster stock. Geron Corp., the company that financed Friday's stem-cell breakthrough went vertical at the opening bell Friday, doubling in price to $22 and staying there into mid-morning. But with even the scientists involved saying real human benefit is a decade or more away, is the stock a buy?

Not anymore, says TIME Wall Street columnist Daniel Kadlec: "We already went through this with EntreMed and the cancer cure -- this is a one-day profit opportunity." Some biotech stock makes news, catches fire and then, weeks or months or years later, quietly slips into oblivion. "There's so many things that can go wrong in ten years," he says. "There'll be a setback, the stock will crater, and you'll be left with nothing. It's not worth the risk." Unless, say, you happened to have gotten in at $7.