This bit of news from the world of science is potentially huge — and could have important significance both medically and morally:

Scientists have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.

Laboratory teams on two continents report success in a pair of landmark papers released Tuesday. It’s a neck-and-neck finish to a race that made headlines five months ago, when scientists announced that the feat had been accomplished in mice.

The “direct reprogramming” technique avoids the swarm of ethical, political and practical obstacles that have stymied attempts to produce human stem cells by cloning embryos.

Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of pro-life activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, tells CBS News producer Steve Baltin it’s a breakthrough that can be accepted by anti-abortion advocates.

“This is a win-win. This is completely acceptable ethically and also perhaps more promising scientifically and medically than embryonic stem cells have been in the past,” Doerflinger said. “Sometimes by being creative, science can help solve the moral problems that science raises.”

Scientists familiar with the work said scientific questions remain and that it’s still important to pursue the cloning strategy, but that the new work is a major coup.

“This work represents a tremendous scientific milestone – the biological equivalent of the Wright Brothers’ first airplane,” said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief science officer of Advanced Cell Technology, which has been trying to extract stem cells from cloned human embryos.

“It’s a bit like learning how to turn lead into gold,” said Lanza, while cautioning that the work is far from providing medical payoffs.

“It’s a huge deal,” agreed Rudolf Jaenisch, a prominent stem cell scientist at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass. “You have the proof of principle that you can do it.”

Stay tuned.