The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks PDF Author: Rebecca Skloot
Publisher: Broadway Paperbacks
ISBN: 0804190100
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
Now an HBO(R) Film starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne. 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.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks PDF Author: Rebecca Skloot
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307589382
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Entertainment Weekly • O: The Oprah Magazine • NPR • Financial Times • New York • Independent (U.K.) • Times (U.K.) • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • Globe and Mail 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, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. 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. 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. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? 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.

Henrietta Lacks the Untold Story

Henrietta Lacks the Untold Story PDF Author: Ron Lacks
Publisher: Bookbaby
ISBN: 9781098307424
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
New Author Ron Lacks, tells a behind the scenes story of what happened in the past 9 years to his family in his new book Henrietta Lacks The Untold Story Ron Lacks is the oldest grandson of Henrietta Lacks. He takes you on the inside of a story that has haunted him for the past 9 years! This book will definitely answer your questions as to how the family is really doing now. From Clover to Baltimore... giving you an inside look at what happen behind closed doors, that ultimately divided a once strong family.

Summary and Analysis of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Summary and Analysis of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks PDF Author: Worth Books
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504043561
Category : Study Aids
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
So much to read, so little time? Get an in-depth summary of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the #1 bestseller about science, race, and medical ethics. For decades, scientists have been using “HeLa” cells in biological research, from developing the polio vaccine and studying the nature of cancer to observing how human biology behaves in outer space. This famous cell line began as a sample taken from a poor African American mother of five named Henrietta Lacks. A cancer patient, Henrietta Lacks went through medical testing but never gave consent for the use of her cells. She died of cervical cancer in 1951, without ever knowing that the samples were intended for extensive medical research. This summary of the #1 New York Times bestseller by Rebecca Skloot tells Henrietta’s story and reveals what happened when her family found out that her cells were being bought and sold in labs around the world. With historical context, character profiles, a timeline of key events, and other features, this summary and analysis of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.

Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks PDF Author: Naven Johnson
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781985421196
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Who Was Henrietta Lacks? On a bright day of August 1st, in the year of 1920, Eliza and Johnny Pleasant brought forth a girl Loretta Pleasant, who's name was later on changed to Henrietta Lacks for reasons unknown to the family. As she grew up, she was given the nickname Hennie. At four years of age her birth mother died of birth complications from her tenth child. Following the hardship of taking care of the children solely, after the demise of his wife, Johnny moved to Clover, Virginia. He then gave guardianship of his children to his folks. Lacks moved in with her grandfather Tommy Lacks, in a two-story log cabin initially owned by her great grandfather and great uncle (it once served as slaves' quarter on the farm). She shared a room with David 'Day 'Lacks, nine years old at the time. He was her cousin, who would later be her husband, and had been there since 1905.

The Best American Science Writing 2011

The Best American Science Writing 2011 PDF Author: Rebecca Skloot
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062091247
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Edited by Rebecca Skloot, award-winning science writer and New York Times bestselling author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and her father, Floyd Skloot, an award-winning poet and writer, and past contributor to the series, The Best American Science Writing 2011 collects into one volume the most crucial, thought-provoking, and engaging science writing of the year. Culled from a wide variety of publications, these selections of outstanding journalism cover the full spectrum of scientific inquiry, providing a comprehensive overview of the most compelling, relevant, and exciting developments in the world of science. Provocative and engaging, The Best American Science Writing 2011 reveals just how far science has brought us—and where it is headed next.

The Skeleton Cupboard: The Making of a Clinical Psychologist

The Skeleton Cupboard: The Making of a Clinical Psychologist PDF Author: Tanya Byron
Publisher: Flatiron Books
ISBN: 1250053803
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
The gripping, unforgettable, and deeply affecting story of a young clinical psychologist learning how she can best help her patients, The Skeleton Cupboard is a riveting and revealing memoir that offers fascinating insight into the human mind. In The Skeleton Cupboard, Professor Tanya Byron recounts the stories of the patients who most influenced her career as a mental health practitioner. Spanning her years of training—years in which Byron was forced her to contend with the harsh realities of the lives of her patients and confront a dark moment in her own family's past—The Skeleton Cupboard is a compelling and compassionate account of how much health practitioners can learn from those they treat. Among others, we meet Ray, a violent sociopath desperate to be shown tenderness and compassion; Mollie, a talented teenager intent on starving herself; and Imogen, a twelve-year old so haunted by a secret that she's intent on killing herself. Byron brings the reader along as she uncovers the reasons each of these individuals behave the way they do, resulting in a thrilling, compulsively readable psychological mystery that sheds light on mental illness and what its treatment tells us about ourselves.

Study Guide: the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (SuperSummary)

Study Guide: the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (SuperSummary) PDF Author: SuperSummary
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781797032184
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 38

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Book Description
SuperSummary, a modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, offers high-quality study guides for challenging works of literature. This 38-page guide for "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot includes detailed chapter summaries and analysis covering 38 chapters, as well as several more in-depth sections of expert-written literary analysis. Featured content includes commentary on major characters, 10 important quotes, discussion topics, and key themes like Scientific Ethics and Informed Consent.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Sparknotes Literature Guide

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Sparknotes Literature Guide PDF Author: Sparknotes
Publisher: Spark Notes
ISBN: 9781411480407
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes give you just what you need to succeed in school: Complete Plot Summary and Analysis Key Facts About the Work Analysis of Major Characters Themes, Motifs, and Symbols Explanation of Important Quotations Author's Historical Context Suggested Essay Topics 25-Question Review Quiz The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks features explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols including: humanity; immortality and legacy; scientific racism; racialized poverty; hela cells; red nail polish. It also includes detailed analysis of these important characters: Deborah Lacks; Henrietta Lacks; Rebecca Skloot; George Gey.

Concepts of Biology

Concepts of Biology PDF Author: Samantha Fowler
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789888407453
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 618

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Book Description
Concepts of Biology is designed for the single-semester introduction to biology course for non-science majors, which for many students is their only college-level science course. As such, this course represents an important opportunity for students to develop the necessary knowledge, tools, and skills to make informed decisions as they continue with their lives. Rather than being mired down with facts and vocabulary, the typical non-science major student needs information presented in a way that is easy to read and understand. Even more importantly, the content should be meaningful. Students do much better when they understand why biology is relevant to their everyday lives. For these reasons, Concepts of Biology is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand.We also strive to show the interconnectedness of topics within this extremely broad discipline. In order to meet the needs of today's instructors and students, we maintain the overall organization and coverage found in most syllabi for this course. A strength of Concepts of Biology is that instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Concepts of Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand--and apply--key concepts.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks PDF Author: Rebecca Skloot
Publisher: Broadway Paperbacks
ISBN: 0804190100
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
Now an HBO(R) Film starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne. 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.