Commitments and Contingencies (Details)	12 Months Ended				12 Months Ended		12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2013 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2013 BioTime [Member] Office and research laboratory in Alameda [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2013 BioTime [Member] Office and research facility in La Jolla [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2013 BioTime [Member] Office space in New York City [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2013 Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. [Member] Office and research facility in Menlo Park [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2013 Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. [Member] Office and research facility in Fremont [Member] USD ($) sqft	Dec. 31, 2013 ESI [Member] Laboratory space [Member] USD ($) sqm	Dec. 31, 2013 ESI [Member] Laboratory space [Member] SGD	Dec. 31, 2013 LifeMap Sciences, Inc. [Member] Office space in Tel Aviv, Israel [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2013 LifeMap Sciences, Inc. [Member] Office space in Tel Aviv, Israel [Member] ILS	Dec. 31, 2013 LifeMap Sciences, Inc. [Member] Office space in Hong Kong [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2013 LifeMap Sciences, Inc. [Member] Office space in Hong Kong [Member] HKD	Dec. 31, 2013 LifeMap Sciences, Inc. [Member] Office space in Marshfield, Massachusetts [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2013 Cell Cure Neurosciences, Ltd. [Member] Office and laboratory space, Jerusalem, Israel [Member] USD ($) sqm	Dec. 31, 2013 Cell Cure Neurosciences, Ltd. [Member] Office and laboratory space, Jerusalem, Israel [Member] ILS
Operating Leased Assets [Line Items]
Lease commencement date					Oct. 15, 2013		Jan. 07, 2013	Oct. 01, 2014					Dec. 01, 2013	Dec. 01, 2013
Lease Expiration Date									Feb. 28, 2014	Feb. 28, 2014	May 31, 2015	May 31, 2015	Nov. 30, 2015	Nov. 30, 2015	Sep. 30, 2015	Jun. 01, 2014	Jun. 01, 2014
Number of terms lease can be extended					1 year 0 months 14 days		3 years	96 months
Number of years lease can be extended (in years)																5 years	5 years
Leased area								44,000	125	125						290	290
Leased area during first 15 months (in square feet)								22,000
Base rent				$ 30,752	$ 4,330	$ 5,050	$ 31,786	$ 99,000	$ 8,700	11,000	$ 7,400	25,889	$ 970	7,500	$ 1,082	$ 9,500	33,000
Base rent increase rate (in hundredths)				3.00%				3.00%
Liable for improvement cost																236,000	820,000
Rent expenses	1,599,725	1,178,840	1,058,170
Real estate taxes during first 15 months								50.00%
Levied taxes on excess assessed valuation								100.00%
Minimum annual lease payments under the various operating leases [Abstract]
2014	1,188,316
2015	1,973,845
2016	1,266,825
2017	1,271,160
2018	1,308,120
Thereafter	5,262,840
Total	$ 12,271,106