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DEFINITION: (noun) A strip of pleated material used as a decoration or a trim. SYNONYMS: ruffle, flounce, frill. USAGE: Those dresses are good, sensible, serviceable dresses, without any frills or furbelows about them, and they're all you'll get this summer.

In a pair of landmark studies, two groups of scientists announced that they have successfully reprogrammed human skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cells, cells that have the potential to mature into any type of tissue in the body. Stem cells have long been the source of ethical, legal, and political debate; and while their cultivation could lead to cures for numerous diseases, harvesting of these vital cells often requires the destruction of fertilized embryos. The new embryo-free technique involves the use of a retrovirus to introduce new genes into the skin cells and sidesteps the long-running ethics debate.

Veneration of pictures and statues symbolizing sacred figures and biblical events was an early feature of Christian worship. Iconoclasts were opposed to the use of such religious images and destroyed them, claiming that they violated the second commandment not to make or worship “graven images.” An iconoclastic movement developed during the Byzantine Empire, and it was characterized by fierce persecution of those who made and venerated icons. What are a few modern examples of iconoclasm?