THE news that researchers in the US and Japan have successfully reprogrammed ordinary skin cells to become stem cells which can be used potentially to cure various diseases should be welcomed with enthusiasm by one and all. These skin stem cells are capable of pluripotency, that is to say they have the capacity to develop into any of several hundred different cell types.

CORK city’s infamous riverbanks will be the central focus of the largest outdoor event ever to be staged here when the city is officially unveiled as the 2005 European Capital of Culture on Saturday night.