Paul S. Knoepfler is a prominent stem cell researcher at UC Davis. He also writes a blog about stem cell research in which his gives his frank opinions about the field and its critics.
Too frank, he says, for some people, who are pressuring him to drop his blog. That alarms me, because I’ve found Knoepfler and his blog a useful source of information on all kinds of stem cells.
Knoepfler often criticizes opponents of embryonic stem cell research, countering what he calls their scientific inaccuracies and biases. But it’s not embryonic stem cell research foes who are putting the muscle on him, he says — it’s supporters of the research.
“The clear or implicit threat from them has been that if I continue this blog, I will pay the consequences from some of the stem cell community. The threat is very real no matter what form it comes to me,” Knoepfler wrote.