This is a fantastic book – definitely five spoons on the spoon scale.
It’s the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who might have been lost to history were it not for her very special cells, the hard work of author Rebecca Skiloot and the help of the Lacks family.
Mrs. Lacks was a cervical cancer patient at John’s Hopkins hospital in 1951. Without her knowledge, doctors took a dime-sized biopsy of her cancer tumor. It was then passed along to researchers at the hospital who were working on the problem of how to grow cells indefinitely in a lab. Like most scientific endeavors, there was a huge failure rate, but the scientists stuck with it. Then, along came Henrietta’s cells.
Her cells became known to science as HeLa cells. They’ve been to the moon and sent around the world. According to the book, if we were able to weigh all of the HeLa cells in existence today, they’d be about 50 million metric tons – about the same as 100 Empire State buildings. Before anyone e-mails me asking how they arrived at this number, honestly, I don’t know. It’s a great visual image though.
I loved this book on several levels.
The science story of how the cells were discovered and then played a part in so many important discoveries alone is enough make it a good read. They not only helped cancer research, but helped to find the polio vaccine and helped science to understand many types of viruses. That story, however, is enriched by the story of the Lacks family – a family history that is so representative of so many other American family histories.
As I’ve worked on HPS for the past eight years, I’ve learned a lot about informed consent and clinical trials. Too often in history various minority groups have been taken advantage of for the sake of science. A kind of collective memory forms that impacts how clinical research is viewed. I don’t share that sort of collective memory, and so often it’s been hard for me to really understand how the past can influence and inform the decisions people make today about whether to participate in research. So often I’ve heard…”I’m not going to be anyone’s guinea pig!” The perspective of the Lacks family helped me to understand this sort of view perhaps a little better.
It was also very interesting to learn a little more about the history of informed consent.
Besides all of this, the research and heart put into the book by the author are amazing. It was definitely a labor of love.
It’s the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who might have been lost to history were it not for her very special cells, the hard work of author Rebecca Skiloot and the help of the Lacks family.
Mrs. Lacks was a cervical cancer patient at John’s Hopkins hospital in 1951. Without her knowledge, doctors took a dime-sized biopsy of her cancer tumor. It was then passed along to researchers at the hospital who were working on the problem of how to grow cells indefinitely in a lab. Like most scientific endeavors, there was a huge failure rate, but the scientists stuck with it. Then, along came Henrietta’s cells.
Her cells became known to science as HeLa cells. They’ve been to the moon and sent around the world. According to the book, if we were able to weigh all of the HeLa cells in existence today, they’d be about 50 million metric tons – about the same as 100 Empire State buildings. Before anyone e-mails me asking how they arrived at this number, honestly, I don’t know. It’s a great visual image though.
I loved this book on several levels.
The science story of how the cells were discovered and then played a part in so many important discoveries alone is enough make it a good read. They not only helped cancer research, but helped to find the polio vaccine and helped science to understand many types of viruses. That story, however, is enriched by the story of the Lacks family – a family history that is so representative of so many other American family histories.
As I’ve worked on HPS for the past eight years, I’ve learned a lot about informed consent and clinical trials. Too often in history various minority groups have been taken advantage of for the sake of science. A kind of collective memory forms that impacts how clinical research is viewed. I don’t share that sort of collective memory, and so often it’s been hard for me to really understand how the past can influence and inform the decisions people make today about whether to participate in research. So often I’ve heard…”I’m not going to be anyone’s guinea pig!” The perspective of the Lacks family helped me to understand this sort of view perhaps a little better.
It was also very interesting to learn a little more about the history of informed consent.
Besides all of this, the research and heart put into the book by the author are amazing. It was definitely a labor of love.
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