小保方DC論文のコピー＆ペースト度は黒か白か？は早稲田の学内検討委員らではなくて皆さんの目で判定してください。
私が指導教員なら「この英語は自分で書いたものですか」とまずは質問しますね。日本人特有の英語表現が見られないのです。私が下手な性なのかも知れませんが。
DC課程の論文のコピペ、ペーストにはかなり悩まされました。英語で書いたものを和訳して持って来いと言うと、怪しげな文章が提出されます。
可笑しいのですが完全に誤りともいえません。ちなみにGoogle翻訳に英文を入れて和訳すると、その博士課程の院生の提出文と同じだったのです。
３年が６年になりましたが、なんとかDC号をとらせることになりましたが、個人的には拒否したかったのですが周囲の教員の圧力も勘案すると、まあOKかという気になったものです。
博士号取得にはそのような状況もあるわけです。特に有馬大臣が主導した博士増産政策もあり、なかなか難しい。
“Stem Cell Basics” (英語). Stem Cell Information. National Institutes of Health (2009年4月21日)
stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/pages/basics1.aspx
I. Introduction: What are stem cells, and why are they important?
Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth.
In addition, in many tissues they serve as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive.
When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential either to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.
Stem cells are distinguished from other cell types by two important characteristics. First, they are unspecialized cells capable of renewing themselves through cell division, sometimes after long periods of inactivity. Second, under certain physiologic or experimental conditions, they can be induced to become tissue- or organ-specific cells with special functions. In some organs, such as the gut and bone marrow, stem cells regularly divide to repair and replace worn out or damaged tissues. In other organs, however, such as the pancreas and the heart, stem cells only divide under special conditions.
Until recently, scientists primarily worked with two kinds of stem cells from animals and humans: embryonic stem cells and non-embryonic "somatic" or "adult" stem cells. The functions and characteristics of these cells will be explained in this document. Scientists discovered ways to derive embryonic stem cells from early mouse embryos nearly 30 years ago, in 1981. The detailed study of the biology of mouse stem cells led to the discovery, in 1998, of a method to derive stem cells from human embryos and grow the cells in the laboratory. These cells are called human embryonic stem cells. The embryos used in these studies were created for reproductive purposes through in vitro fertilization procedures. When they were no longer needed for that purpose, they were donated for research with the informed consent of the donor. In 2006, researchers made another breakthrough by identifying conditions that would allow some specialized adult cells to be "reprogrammed" genetically to assume a stem cell-like state. This new type of stem cell, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), will be discussed in a later section of this document.
Stem cells are important for living organisms for many reasons. In the 3- to 5-day-old embryo, called a blastocyst, the inner cells give rise to the entire body of the organism, including all of the many specialized cell types and organs such as the heart, lung, skin, sperm, eggs and other tissues. In some adult tissues, such as bone marrow, muscle, and brain, discrete populations of adult stem cells generate replacements for cells that are lost through normal wear and tear, injury, or disease.
Given their unique regenerative abilities, stem cells offer new potentials for treating diseases such as diabetes, and heart disease. However, much work remains to be done in the laboratory and the clinic to understand how to use these cells for cell-based therapies to treat disease, which is also referred to as regenerative or reparative medicine.
Laboratory studies of stem cells enable scientists to learn about the cells’ essential properties and what makes them different from specialized cell types. Scientists are already using stem cells in the laboratory to screen new drugs and to develop model systems to study normal growth and identify the causes of birth defects.
Research on stem cells continues to advance knowledge about how an organism develops from a single cell and how healthy cells replace damaged cells in adult organisms. Stem cell research is one of the most fascinating areas of contemporary biology, but, as with many expanding fields of scientific inquiry, research on stem cells raises scientific questions as rapidly as it generates new discoveries.