Heart stem cells: fact or fantasy?

NG2-glia as Multipotent Neural Stem Cells: Fact or Fantasy?

Cycling glial precursors-"NG2-glia"-are abundant in the developing and mature central nervous system (CNS). During development, they generate oligodendrocytes. In culture, they can revert to a multipotent state, suggesting that they might have latent stem cell potential that could be harnessed to treat neurodegenerative disease. This hope has been subdued recently by a series of fate-mapping st...

Femoroacetabular impingement: fact, fiction, or fantasy?

OBJECTIVE Proponents of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) now claim that FAI is an important risk factor for hip osteoarthritis and argue that early, aggressive treatment is indicated to stave off long-term complications. The result is more young patients undergoing corrective surgery; does the literature support these claims or has hype trumped reality? This article critically reviews these a...

“extension of Platelet Storage: Fact or Fantasy”

A Psychedelic Experience - Fact or Fantasy

Since at least 1500 B.C. men have, from time to time, held the view that our normal vision of the world is a hallucination—a dream, a figment of the mind, or, to use the Hindu word which means both art and illusion, a maya. The implication is that, if this is so, life need never be taken seriously. It is a fantasy, a play, a drama to be enjoyed. It does not really matter, for one day (perhaps i...

Automatic speech recognition: fact or fantasy?

The application of speech as a communication medium for reporting machine status conditions, alarm alert etc. has been a technological reality for a number of years. However, social awareness of speech recognition has been confined mainly to science fiction portrayals, such as the intelligent on-board computer 'HAL' in the film 2001 a space odyssey. Although the detail of the human-like intelli...