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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks |  | Author: Rebecca Skloot
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $12.83
as of 7/28/2010 16:41 CDT details
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Seller: Holston Book
Rating:  281 reviews
Sales Rank: 32
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1 edition
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 10 x 6.5 x 1.4
ISBN: 1400052173
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.02774092
EAN: 9781400052172
ASIN: 1400052173
Publication Date: February 2, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
BRAND NEW 2010 HARDBACK EDITION, SOME SHELFWEAR MARKS. OVERSTOCK MARK..
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2010: From a single, abbreviated life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. And from that same life, and those cells, Rebecca Skloot has fashioned in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks a fascinating and moving story of medicine and family, of how life is sustained in laboratories and in memory. Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio. Meanwhile, Henrietta's family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution--and her cells' strange survival--left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion. For a decade, Skloot doggedly but compassionately gathered the threads of these stories, slowly gaining the trust of the family while helping them learn the truth about Henrietta, and with their aid she tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories? --Tom Nissley
Amazon Exclusive: Jad Abumrad Reviews The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Jad Abumrad is host and creator of the public radio hit Radiolab, now in its seventh season and reaching over a million people monthly. Radiolab combines cutting-edge production with a philosophical approach to big ideas in science and beyond, and an inventive method of storytelling. Abumrad has won numerous awards, including a National Headliner Award in Radio and an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science Journalism Award. Read his exclusive Amazon guest review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks:
Honestly, I can't imagine a better tale. A detective story that's at once mythically large and painfully intimate. Just the simple facts are hard to believe: that in 1951, a poor black woman named Henrietta Lacks dies of cervical cancer, but pieces of the tumor that killed her--taken without her knowledge or consent--live on, first in one lab, then in hundreds, then thousands, then in giant factories churning out polio vaccines, then aboard rocket ships launched into space. The cells from this one tumor would spawn a multi-billion dollar industry and become a foundation of modern science--leading to breakthroughs in gene mapping, cloning and fertility and helping to discover how viruses work and how cancer develops (among a million other things). All of which is to say: the science end of this story is enough to blow one's mind right out of one's face. But what's truly remarkable about Rebecca Skloot's book is that we also get the rest of the story, the part that could have easily remained hidden had she not spent ten years unearthing it: Who was Henrietta Lacks? How did she live? How she did die? Did her family know that she'd become, in some sense, immortal, and how did that affect them? These are crucial questions, because science should never forget the people who gave it life. And so, what unfolds is not only a reporting tour de force but also a very entertaining account of Henrietta, her ancestors, her cells and the scientists who grew them. The book ultimately channels its journey of discovery though Henrietta's youngest daughter, Deborah, who never knew her mother, and who dreamt of one day being a scientist. As Deborah Lacks and Skloot search for answers, we're bounced effortlessly from the tiny tobacco-farming Virginia hamlet of Henrietta's childhood to modern-day Baltimore, where Henrietta's family remains. Along the way, a series of unforgettable juxtapositions: cell culturing bumps into faith healings, cutting edge medicine collides with the dark truth that Henrietta's family can't afford the health insurance to care for diseases their mother's cells have helped to cure. Rebecca Skloot tells the story with great sensitivity, urgency and, in the end, damn fine writing. I highly recommend this book. --Jad Abumrad
Look Inside The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Click on thumbnails for larger images  |  |  |  |  | | Henrietta and David Lacks, circa 1945. | Elsie Lacks, Henrietta’s older daughter, about five years before she was committed to Crownsville State Hospital, with a diagnosis of “idiocy.” | Deborah Lacks at about age four. | The home-house where Henrietta was raised, a four-room log cabin in Clover, Virginia, that once served as slave quarters. (1999) | Main Street in downtown Clover, Virginia, where Henrietta was raised, circa 1930s. |
 |  |  |  |  | | Margaret Gey and Minnie, a lab technician, in the Gey lab at Hopkins, circa 1951. | Deborah with her children, LaTonya and Alfred, and her second husband, James Pullum, in the mid-1980s. | In 2001, Deborah developed a severe case of hives after learning upsetting new information about her mother and sister. | Deborah and her cousin Gary Lacks standing in front of drying tobacco, 2001. | The Lacks family in 2009. |
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 281
 Revenge and Exoneration in Science. Huh!?. July 28, 2010
William C. Wright (Saint Louis, MO USA)
I was engrossed by this book.
My admiration and gratitude goes out to Professor Rebecca Skloot and to the Lacks family! Congratulations!
Having worked in the field of tissue culture, human genetics, cancer research and dealing with the problems of cell line contamination, especially by HeLa Cells, I found this book helpful in telling the personal and family story of the Lacks family that we, I, often wondered about.
Very Moving. In fact the story would make a great Movie!
The book also gave a lot of history about the early days of tissue culture and emphasized the importance of the break-through in tissue culture media development and the use of HeLa cells in the battle against polio. I found this interesting.
Personally, I was frustrated in getting my Ph.D. partly because of the HeLa cell contamination described in the book. My Ph.D professor would not let me bring into the lab another very aggressively growing cell line for my research because he thought it might contaminate other cell lines in the lab, like HeLa had.
A delay of a year and a half took a significant bite out of my 3 year scholarship.
Anyway, several years later, I had the chance for "revenge" and "exoneration" when I was able to confirm all the 14 or more HeLa cell suspect cell lines were indeed all the same genetically, using multiple polymorphic enzyme markers I learned to type in my Ph.D. professor's lab.
I also exonerated many other cancer cell lines as being bona fide and above suspicion of being contaminant cell lines because of their differences in the polymorphic enzymes they had - they had a genetic finger-print.
They could be used with confidence in cancer and biological research.
My work also found another contamination group of cell lines, all originating from one laboratory, that was subsequently published - alerting the research community.
 A Tale of Modern Ethics July 28, 2010
D. B. Gray (Raging Main)
A sad and morally complicated story about the commercialization of the HeLa cells and the affect it has had on the "donors'" family. These cells harvested, under questionable means, by a John Hopkins doctor in the 1950's were used in many scientific experiments but for all the good they have done, the "donor" family is deeply scared from the exploitation.
The author becomes involved with the skeptical Lacks family and does her best to inform them of what actually happened to their mother's tissue. In particular the author finally gains the trust of the daughter and teaches her on the history of her mother. There is hope that this enlightenment will help the family heal this decades old wound.
 Disappointing book July 27, 2010
John J. Boren
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
High on the list of science books, Amazon listed "The Immortal Life.." I had just finished reading a science book, "The Anatomy of an Epidemic," by Robert Whitaker, and I found it a "knock-your-socks-off" educational experience--and interesting! I wanted to read another science book, so I downloaded this book by Rebecca Skloot to my Kindle. I thought I might learn about cell culture, how cell cultures can be used to discover new treatments for cancer, etc. What I found instead were a few scattered pages about cell culture, especially of Henrietta Lacks's cancer cells, and countless pages that droned on and on with details about how Henrietta Lacks and her family were poorly treated in the 1950's. Someone interested in the bad treatment of blacks in the 1950's might like this book, but I much preferred Whitaker's book on mental disorders and psychotropic meds for interesting scientific information.
HeLa is good reading July 26, 2010
Jen808
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a fascinating story. I bought the CD box set and listen to it as I go about driving Some of the details about the cellular research are kind of heavy. However the author weaves in enough of the story of the Lacks family to more than compensate for those of us who have very little background in the scientific aspects of the book. I am glad that I am listening to it instead of reading it because I believe that I would have put the book down due to the scientific details. I think the telling of this story reveals why it is so important to understand the concept of informed consent and bioethics. I highly recommend the book because it does provide clear evidence of the abuses that are possible when one does not understand a process or procedure.
Science, ethics, and social justice July 25, 2010
Stanley Maloy (San Diego, CA United States)
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" ties together science, social justice, ethics, impressive journalism, and wonderful "storytelling". This nonfiction book describes the origin of the first effective in vitro cell line (HeLa cells) from a poor black woman. The main story documents the science behind cell culture; the origin of laws that protect human subjects; and the failure of scientists to provide adequate explanations to the poorly educated family members of the "donor", who felt used and abused by biomedical science. The side stories tell about life in the rural south as tobacco farmers, scraping to make ends meet by putting the entire family to work; life in the slums of Philadelphia plagued by child abuse, drugs, and violence; and the challenges for many poorly educated citizens to understand modern medicine, technology, and economics.
In short, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" is a compelling book about the interface of science and society, written for the general public but a wonderful "read" for both nonscientists and scientists alike. Every budding scientist should read this book to gain insight into the origin and importance of regulations governing research on humans.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 281
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| Worthwhile Reading | Your 401k Account - An Annual Checkup
By Dee Marie
You probably perform a lot of tasks annually. Some of these tasks protect you, your family, or even your assets. These chores include visiting your doctor for an annual physical or cleaning the gutters on your house. Well, next time you're making your list of 'must-do's' be certain to include a checkup for your 401(k) plan on your list.
Your annual examination of your 401(k) plan should cover a few different aspects of your investment. You can check each one quickly by exploring your most recent account statement.
First, you should evaluate your contribution amount. Changes in your financial position over the past year could warrant an increase or decrease in the amount you put into your 401(k).
Receiving a raise at work is a great occasion to increase your retirement contribution. Changing your contribution amount isn't what matters here; it's taking the time to decide if you should make a change.
Next, you should take a look at your investment choices. A mutual fund that was outperforming its peers at this time last year may have tanked over the last twelve months. Although it's important to remember that you don't want to change your investment allocations too often, a regular examination of the funds you've chosen isn't excessive.
Finally, you should check on the way your investment options within your 401(k) are spread. Investing in four mutual funds, you might decide to put twenty-five percent of your account into each fund. However, if one fund grows more aggressively than another, at the end of the year you may have forty percent in one fund, ten percent in another, and twenty-five percent in each of the remaining two funds. Since financial experts sometimes advise that retirement accounts should be spread among many different types of investment, you may want to rebalance your account back to your original allocations of twenty-five percent in each fund.
Making changes to your 401(k) plan isn't something that should be taken lightly. Speak with your financial advisor if you aren't certain about the direction you should be taking. Regardless of the actions you decide to take, you'll feel better about your retirement plan after taking care of its annual maintenance.
Want to learn how to save more money? Head on over to http://NotMadeOfMoney.com/blog - Be sure to grab our RSS feed or sign up to receive email updates
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CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED βAS ISβ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. | | Retirement Facts | | Whether a worker is offered and participates in a retirement plan at work depends greatly on what type of worker the person is:
Public-sector workers have the highest level of participation in a retirement plan (75.8% in 2004), while parttime workers typically are not offered a retirement plan or rarely participate when they are.
Among all workers, less than half (41.9% in 2004) participate in a retirement plan.
Among full-time, full-year wage and salary workers, more than half (56.6% in 2004) participate in a retirement plan.
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