Abstract: After the debacle of the landmark therapeutic cloning paper by Hwang et al. in Science and the exposure of some unethical ways in reporting �ethically� cloned stem cells, scientific community and general public have learned some hard lessons in embracing �breakthroughs� in the stem cell and cloning research. However, the high-profile publication of the so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells by Cell, Nature and Science � the so-called central nerve system (CNS) of scientific publishing � seemed to have restored the damaged reputation of the controversial therapeutic cloning. The creation of iPS cells has been called the �Wright brother�s first airplane� or even something like �turning lead into gold�. However, careful analyses of the iPS publications suggest that iPS cells are most likely the pre-existing stem cells being detected due to some unexplained activation/amplification mechanisms. There is no solid evidence for the much highlighted claim of inducing normal skin cells into pluripotent stem cells by the so-called �reprogramming� or �dedifferentiation�.