Nature deleted Shi Liu’s comment, again!

On July 28^th, 2009 Shi Liu posted the following comment under the Nature News

“Mice made from induced stem cells”( http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090723/full/460560a.html).

· Can we calm down a little bit and see if the passage of some incorrectly programmed stem cells (iPSCs) may be a harmful thing to mice now and to humans in future? We now know that iPSCs are not "indistinguishable" from ESCs and many of Yamanaka’s "safe" iPSCs showed tumor/cancer formation (see details at http://im1.biz/iPS.htm ). Why the researchers have not systematically looked tumor formation on the IPSCs generated here in the Yamanaka way? Why the team wouldn't even reveal the details of the "abnormalities"? Is the higher than 97% death rate a real success or a great failure even in the reproductive cloning sense?

However, this comment was deleted by Nature before July 29, 2009.

What is wrong with this comment? Was this comment more offensive than any of the following selected comments still preserved by Nature?

· Incredible feat, another reason why Yamanaka could be a candidate for the Nobel. I suspect some in the popular press will potray this technology as another doorway to human cloning.

o 23 Jul, 2009

o Posted by: David Rubin

o

• Considering the recent affairs with unreproducible results, shouldn't everyone wait for verification before claiming success? One surving mouse doesn't confirm a hypothesis.
• 23 Jul, 2009
Posted by: DH Stevans

• Of course this now means using human iPS cells for research now has all the same ethical dilemmas as using ES cells. As iPS cells have the capacity to form a fully functional organism, using/destroying them for research purposes equates to murder.
• 23 Jul, 2009
Posted by: Alex Wilding

· @Elizabeth Platt Read the full article yourself. "Gao's team is now trying to mate its surviving mouse." Any reputable scientist would call this "rushing to press", before sufficient verification.

o 24 Jul, 2009

Why would Nature selectively delete Shi Liu’s comment?

What makes Shi Liu a person so afraid of by Nature?

Why is Nature so scared of so letting public to know Liu’s views?