President Barack Obama's new policy on stem-cell research and his strong statement on restoring integrity to science (see page 130) are victories for science that hold key lessons for future science-policy debates. But the battle over stem-cell research will not end here, and scientists must continue to engage the public to maintain the support that eventually convinced politicians to back this work. President George W. Bush satisfied no one when he declared that US federal funding could be used to study only human embryonic stem-cell lines created before 9 August 2001. Scientists thought the cells held enormous potential to unravel the mechanisms of disease, and were frustrated at the arbitrary restriction, because it limited funding to 21 lines made with old techniques. The policy also forced scientists to waste money building facilities to separate research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from that funded privately. And although induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) were created from adult cells in 2006, in part to sidestep the restrictions, they have yet to show all the same abilities as embryonic stem cells.
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