A recently developed technique that might eventually produce facsimiles of human embryonic stem cells from skin cells opens a whole new can of worms–the possibility of creating chimera humans, Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology, says.

“If we had a few skin cells from Albert Einstein, or anyone else in the world, you could have a child that is say 10 per cent or 70 per cent Albert Einstein by just injecting a few of their cells into an embryo. It’s unethical and unsafe, but someone may be doing it today.”