Employing a series of Socratic dialogues, this study of the use of stem cells in medicine and medical research examines the ethical and public policy issues that confront scientists, clinicians, and the public health community.

"Science is how we understand the world. Yet critical flaws in peer review, statistical methods, and publication procedures have rendered a shocking number of scientific studies useless-or worse, badly misleading. Drawing on surprising new data from "meta-science" (the science of how science works), Science Fictions documents the errors that have distorted our knowledge on issues as varied as cancer biology, nutrition, genetics, immigration, education,...