Elena CattaneoItalian researcher Elena Cattaneo has written previously on this site about the lack of transparent, contestable funding for science in Italy.  A new book by Armando Massarenti, Staminalia: Le Cellule Etiche e i Nemici Della Ricerca (Staminalia: Ethical Cells and the Enemies Of Research), picks up on this issue - describing the political and ethical disputes surrounding stem cell research in Italy, and the way science has sometimes been misrepresented.  Cattaneo, reviewing this book in Nature, writes:

"The ethical dimension of science is at the core of Staminalia...The possibility of criticizing and reviewing results is an essential part of science and of the moral and civil growth of a nation. Those attacking these values and representing science and scientists as a threat to humanity are expressing intolerance and contempt for democracy itself."

Read the full review in Nature, Science, dogmas and the state (free access for a limited time).

Earlier this month, US president-elect Barack Obama stated his intention to revoke the ban on public funding of human embryonic stem cell research imposed by his predecessor.  The Vatican quickly responded, prompting Cattaneo to write a commentary for Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, «Perché lavoro con le embrionali» ("The reason why I work with embryonic stem cells" - view a PDF of the article translated into English).