Saturday, October 20, 2012

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks





I have just begun reading this book.  Picked it up for 50 cents at a thrift shop. The copy I purchased was a One Book / One Campus Program selection by Florida State University. This particular edition begins with a Welcome letter to the class of 2015 by the FSU president Eric J. Barron.  I wonder how many of the freshmen completed the book and attended the new student convocation on Sunday,  August 28, 2001 at theTallahassee-Leon County Civic Center at which Rebecca Skloot was the featured speaker.


Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman who was the unwitting source of cells which were cultured by George Otto Gey to create an immortal cell line for medical research. This is now known as the HeLa cell line.

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