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The Resource The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, (electronic resource :)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, (electronic resource :)

Creator
Contributor
Summary
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells?taken without her knowledge?became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they?d weigh more than 50 million metric tons?as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb?s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta?s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia?a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo?to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. Henrietta?s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family?past and present?is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family?especially Henrietta?s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother?s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn?t her children afford health insurance????????????Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences
Language
eng
Work
Instance
Label
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Title
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Statement of responsibility
Rebecca Skloot
Creator
Contributor
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells?taken without her knowledge?became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they?d weigh more than 50 million metric tons?as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb?s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta?s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia?a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo?to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. Henrietta?s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family?past and present?is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family?especially Henrietta?s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother?s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn?t her children afford health insurance????????????Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences
Biography type
individual biography
Cataloging source
MnSpTMCL
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1972-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Skloot, Rebecca
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
dictionaries
http://library.link/vocab/relatedWorkOrContributorName
cloudLibrary
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Lacks, Henrietta
  • Lacks, Henrietta
  • Cancer
  • African American women
  • Human experimentation in medicine
  • HeLa cells
  • Cancer
  • Cell culture
  • Medical ethics
  • Tissue Donors
  • Tissue and Organ Procurement
  • African Americans
  • Confidentiality
  • Hela Cells
  • History, 20th Century
  • Human Experimentation
  • Prejudice
Label
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, (electronic resource :)
Link
Instantiates
Publication
Note
Electronic book
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
  • 1 online resource
  • 368 p.
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780307589385
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
f1rg9
Reproduction note
Electronic reproduction.
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(MnSpTMCL)f1rg9
System details
  • Format: Adobe EPUB
  • Requires: cloudLibrary (file size: 5.3 MB)
Label
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, (electronic resource :)
Link
Publication
Note
Electronic book
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
  • 1 online resource
  • 368 p.
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780307589385
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
f1rg9
Reproduction note
Electronic reproduction.
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(MnSpTMCL)f1rg9
System details
  • Format: Adobe EPUB
  • Requires: cloudLibrary (file size: 5.3 MB)

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    405 Pine St, Manchester, NH, 03104, US
    42.992271 -71.458785
  • West Manchester Branch LibraryBorrow it
    76 North Main St, Manchester, NH, 03102, US
    42.984974 -71.474229

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