The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
4 journalers for this copy...
from amazon:
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Born a poor black tobacco farmer, her cancer cells became a multimillion-dollar industry and one of the most important tools in medicine. Yet Henrietta's family did not learn of her 'immortality' until more than twenty years after her death, with devastating consequences .
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Born a poor black tobacco farmer, her cancer cells became a multimillion-dollar industry and one of the most important tools in medicine. Yet Henrietta's family did not learn of her 'immortality' until more than twenty years after her death, with devastating consequences .
Fascinating and at times upsetting story, not only about the HeLa cells, but also the treatment of the family and African-American people in the USA.
Journal Entry 3 by 
rahar109
at Camel & Artichoke in Waterloo, Greater London United Kingdom on Monday, February 10, 2014
rahar109 at Camel & Artichoke in Waterloo, Greater London United Kingdom on Monday, February 10, 2014
Released 10 yrs ago (2/11/2014 UTC) at Camel & Artichoke in Waterloo, Greater London United Kingdom
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Being taken to the meet-up on Tuesday night.
Hello!
If this is your introduction to Bookcrossing, welcome, and congratulations on finding this book! Enjoy reading the book,and I hope you will let us know what you thought. It is now yours to do with as you wish - keep it, pass it on, but please leave the label, so it can keep in touch with us. If you would like to know what happens to the book after it has left you, then do join - it's private and it's fun!
And if you do choose to join, please consider using me, rahar109, as your referring member.
Happy Bookcrossing!
Hello!
If this is your introduction to Bookcrossing, welcome, and congratulations on finding this book! Enjoy reading the book,and I hope you will let us know what you thought. It is now yours to do with as you wish - keep it, pass it on, but please leave the label, so it can keep in touch with us. If you would like to know what happens to the book after it has left you, then do join - it's private and it's fun!
And if you do choose to join, please consider using me, rahar109, as your referring member.
Happy Bookcrossing!
I'm afraid I won't be able to take home half the great books I picked up tonight, but this made the short-list and has at least accompanied me to my B&B in Barnes for the time being.
Thank you for the lovely evening, London bookcrossers!
Thank you for the lovely evening, London bookcrossers!
Journal Entry 5 by linguistkris at Solingen, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Thursday, August 20, 2015
Journal Entry 6 by linguistkris at Solingen, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Thursday, August 27, 2015
This is absolutely everything I could ever want from a popular science book. The Immortal Life is as entertaining as it is educational, but the real strength of this book is its overwhelming humanness. I read this in a little over 36 hours, utterly engrossed, and I constantly felt the urge to hug one or another of the protagonists.
I had read Stiff by Mary Roach just a week or so before, and I was surprised by the very different feel of those two books. Although similar at first glance in that they are pop science dealing with death, (medical) research and the ethics thereof, these two books come from very different places. The Immortal Life is a very straight-faced, up-close-and-personal book, dealing in great detail with the lives of individuals and how they were impacted by scientific conduct, and with the development of research ethics as a result thereof. Stiff does focus on medical history and respect for patients (and their remains), but, to my mind (and I really only noticed this in comparison), was too busy with providing comic relief to ever really touch me.
On the other hand, The Immortal Life also got to me so easily because it tied in with my own experience: I'm not in any way in a medical profession, but there was a period in my life when I did field work with severely disadvantaged poor black people, and I vividly remember how difficult it can be to explain what you are trying to do, and what hair-raising misunderstandings can stand in the way. So when Rebecca struggled to convince Deborah there wasn't a village of cloned Henriettas somewhere in England (and similar scenes), I felt on the verge of tears not only for Deborah, but also for the people who believed we might be getting rich selling their language to secret government espionage programmes (which supposedly could be used in the events of a Russian or Chinese invasion, iirc).
I don't think doing science is particularly hard. Every high school kid can learn what matters in research and how it's supposed to be done. But communicating science, making it relevant, and above all, interesting and transparent to everybody -- I cannot praise this book enough for showing at the same time how difficult, and how very vital that is.
ETA February 2016: I felt very well-informed when HeLa was mentioned as an example of a conspiracy theory in the X-Files reboot (although, again, I don't think there was any conspiracy involved so much as the most horribly poor communication imaginable.)
I had read Stiff by Mary Roach just a week or so before, and I was surprised by the very different feel of those two books. Although similar at first glance in that they are pop science dealing with death, (medical) research and the ethics thereof, these two books come from very different places. The Immortal Life is a very straight-faced, up-close-and-personal book, dealing in great detail with the lives of individuals and how they were impacted by scientific conduct, and with the development of research ethics as a result thereof. Stiff does focus on medical history and respect for patients (and their remains), but, to my mind (and I really only noticed this in comparison), was too busy with providing comic relief to ever really touch me.
On the other hand, The Immortal Life also got to me so easily because it tied in with my own experience: I'm not in any way in a medical profession, but there was a period in my life when I did field work with severely disadvantaged poor black people, and I vividly remember how difficult it can be to explain what you are trying to do, and what hair-raising misunderstandings can stand in the way. So when Rebecca struggled to convince Deborah there wasn't a village of cloned Henriettas somewhere in England (and similar scenes), I felt on the verge of tears not only for Deborah, but also for the people who believed we might be getting rich selling their language to secret government espionage programmes (which supposedly could be used in the events of a Russian or Chinese invasion, iirc).
I don't think doing science is particularly hard. Every high school kid can learn what matters in research and how it's supposed to be done. But communicating science, making it relevant, and above all, interesting and transparent to everybody -- I cannot praise this book enough for showing at the same time how difficult, and how very vital that is.
ETA February 2016: I felt very well-informed when HeLa was mentioned as an example of a conspiracy theory in the X-Files reboot (although, again, I don't think there was any conspiracy involved so much as the most horribly poor communication imaginable.)
Journal Entry 7 by linguistkris at Wishlist Tag Game, By Mail/Post/Courier -- Controlled Releases on Thursday, August 27, 2015
Released 8 yrs ago (8/27/2015 UTC) at Wishlist Tag Game, By Mail/Post/Courier -- Controlled Releases
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Ab die Post!
The book arrived today, thank you!
A HeLa cell is a cell type in an immortal cell line used in scientific research. It was derived from the cancer cells of the poor black woman Henrietta Lacks. I did not know anything about HeLa or Henrietta, everything was absolutely new to me. A very interesting and disturbing book.
Wish list book thank you Lilo
