South Korean chemists say they have turned muscle cells from the sole of a human foot into something akin to stem cells, using a simple molecule called neurodazine.

If confirmed, their findings would be revolutionary, potentially allowing the development of new therapies for degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s disease without the ethical problems associated with using discarded human embryos to extract embryonic stem cells.

But other scientists are sceptical about claims that their method can convert fully-differentiated adult muscle cells into nerve cells.

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