Whoa. Reprogramming cells into stem cells

Wow. Reprogramming skin cells into the penultimate changeling cells - stem cells. And they used gene-carrying viruses to do it. Unreal. This could change the face of medicine.

Both labs did basically the same thing. Each used viruses to ferry four genes into the skin cells. These particular genes were known to turn other genes on and off, but just how they produced cells that mimic embryonic stem cells is a mystery.

"People didn't know it would be this easy," Thomson said. "Thousands of labs in the United States can do this, basically tomorrow."