The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 1/19/2021
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 1/19/2021 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this UK-edition softcover at a local Savers thrift shop, for another release copy. (There's a 2017 TV movie based on the book.)
I'd heard about Lacks' cells long ago, probably via a Reader's Digest article, but it only dealt with the unusual properties of her cells. This book covers all that, and much more, focusing primarily on the lives of everyone involved - Lacks herself, her family, the doctors - including a close look at their situation at the time and where the surviving family members are now. In some respects it's a scientific triumph, and in others a horror story - the discovery that the HeLa cells were so insanely robust that they'd effectively contaminated a HUGE percentage of labs around the world was nothing short of terrifying, and while it hasn't (that we know of) produced any B-movie franken-bugs it did terrible damage to ongoing experiments that had to start over.
The suffering that Lacks went through was pretty horrifying too, and the troubles of her family members didn't stop with her death; the book made me feel as if I'd met them all, and the author's persistence and patience vs. the reluctance of the family to get involved with a public that hadn't done them any good at all was quite remarkable.
Science, history, and a very personal biography - fascinating story.
I'd heard about Lacks' cells long ago, probably via a Reader's Digest article, but it only dealt with the unusual properties of her cells. This book covers all that, and much more, focusing primarily on the lives of everyone involved - Lacks herself, her family, the doctors - including a close look at their situation at the time and where the surviving family members are now. In some respects it's a scientific triumph, and in others a horror story - the discovery that the HeLa cells were so insanely robust that they'd effectively contaminated a HUGE percentage of labs around the world was nothing short of terrifying, and while it hasn't (that we know of) produced any B-movie franken-bugs it did terrible damage to ongoing experiments that had to start over.
The suffering that Lacks went through was pretty horrifying too, and the troubles of her family members didn't stop with her death; the book made me feel as if I'd met them all, and the author's persistence and patience vs. the reluctance of the family to get involved with a public that hadn't done them any good at all was quite remarkable.
Science, history, and a very personal biography - fascinating story.
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Post Office Bookswap Shelf (UBCZ), 353 Middlesex Rd. in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts USA on Thursday, February 11, 2021
GoryDetails at Post Office Bookswap Shelf (UBCZ), 353 Middlesex Rd. in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts USA on Thursday, February 11, 2021
Released 3 yrs ago (2/11/2021 UTC) at Post Office Bookswap Shelf (UBCZ), 353 Middlesex Rd. in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.
I plan to leave this book on the book-swap shelf in the Tyngsboro MA post office lobby. Hope someone enjoys it!
[See other recent releases in MA here.]
*** Released for the 2021 Great Backyard Bird Count challenge (see www.birdcount.org to join the count), for the embedded "hen" in the title. ***
I plan to leave this book on the book-swap shelf in the Tyngsboro MA post office lobby. Hope someone enjoys it!
[See other recent releases in MA here.]
*** Released for the 2021 Great Backyard Bird Count challenge (see www.birdcount.org to join the count), for the embedded "hen" in the title. ***
