Commitments and Contingencies (Details)	12 Months Ended					12 Months Ended				12 Months Ended						12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 BioTime [Member] Principal office and laboratory facilities [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 BioTime [Member] Office space in New York City [Member] USD ($) sqft	Dec. 31, 2012 LifeMap Sciences, Inc. [Member] Office space in Tel Aviv, Israel [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 LifeMap Sciences, Inc. [Member] Office space in Tel Aviv, Israel [Member] ILS	Apr. 30, 2012 LifeMap Sciences, Inc. [Member] Office space in Tel Aviv, Israel [Member] USD ($)	Apr. 30, 2012 LifeMap Sciences, Inc. [Member] Office space in Tel Aviv, Israel [Member] ILS	Dec. 31, 2012 LifeMap Sciences, Inc. [Member] Office space in Hong Kong [Member] USD ($) sqft	Dec. 31, 2012 LifeMap Sciences, Inc. [Member] Office space in Hong Kong [Member] HKD	Dec. 31, 2012 LifeMap Sciences, Inc. [Member] Office space in Marshfield, Massachusetts [Member] USD ($) sqft	Dec. 31, 2012 ESI [Member] Office space [Member]	Oct. 31, 2012 ESI [Member] Office space [Member] USD ($)	Oct. 31, 2012 ESI [Member] Office space [Member] SGD	Dec. 31, 2012 ESI [Member] Laboratory space [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 ESI [Member] Laboratory space [Member] SGD	Dec. 31, 2012 Cell Cure Neurosciences, Ltd. [Member] Office and laboratory space, Jerusalem, Israel [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 Cell Cure Neurosciences, Ltd. [Member] Office and laboratory space, Jerusalem, Israel [Member] ILS
Operating Leased Assets [Line Items]
Lease Expiration Date				Jan. 31, 2016		Apr. 30, 2012	Apr. 30, 2012			Nov. 30, 2013	Nov. 30, 2013	Sep. 30, 2015	Oct. 31, 2012			Oct. 31, 2013	Oct. 31, 2013	Jun. 14, 2014	Jun. 14, 2014
Number of terms lease can be extended				1
Number of years lease can be extended				5 years
Leased area (in square feet)					900					80	80	750
Base rent				$ 29,856	$ 5,050	$ 5,550	20,720	$ 4,000	15,000	$ 825	6,401	$ 1,082		$ 1,800	2,241	$ 7,850	9,600	$ 8,800	33,000
Base rent increase rate (in hundredths)				3.00%
Liable for improvement cost																		229,700	8,580,000
Rent expenses	1,178,840	1,058,170	656,883
Minimum annual lease payments under the various operating leases [Abstract]
2013	1,021,054
2014	879,638
2015	804,341
2016	32,625
2017	0
Thereafter	$ 0