Shinya Yamanaka.

WASHINGTON (BP) -- A Japanese researcher who discovered a way to produce stem cells that act like embryonic ones without their lethal consequences has won a Nobel Prize.

"I thought, we can't keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way." -- Shinya Yamanaka

The Nobel Foundation awarded its 2012 prize in physiology or medicine to Shinya Yamanaka, who was able to reprogram adult skin cells into cells that have virtually the identical properties of embryonic ones, which have the ability to change into any cell or tissue in the body. In the Oct. 8 announcement, Yamanaka, 50, shared the Nobel Prize with British scientist John Gurdon, 79, whose work in 1962 paved the way for the Japanese researcher's breakthrough. (Baptist Press.)
So. Happily, not all The Nobel Prize awards have been steeped in idiocy!