Stem cells are highly valued by medical researchers because they believe these special cells might be able to cure intractable diseases such as Parkinson's, diabetes and heart disease.
The goal has always been to produce "pluripotent" stem cells, a kind of starter cell that can change to become any of the 220 cell types in the human body. Starter cells of this kind were first harvested from human embryos in 1998.
Collecting the cells required the destruction of the embryo, something that raised ethical questions given the unavoidable termination of an otherwise viable unborn human. Ethical concerns also caused the issue to become highly politicised.
The new method for producing "pluripotent" cells described in the two scientific reports lifts this ethical burden and opens the way for widespread research. No embryos are involved so there is no destruction of human life.
More importantly, the person likely to receive any treatments would actually serve as donor, contributing a small number of mature skin cells which are made to "forget" they are skin cells and change back to become starter cells once again.
This means the resultant stem cells are a perfect genetic match to the patient. There is no question of rejection, so the cells could be used to treat disease without the patient having to take drugs to block tissue rejection.