Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer, and author of the New York Times Bestselling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It tells the story of HeLa -- the first immortal human cell line ever grown in culture (pictured in the blog's banner) -- the woman those cells came from, and the family she left behind. The book has been featured on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, CBS Sunday Morning, The Colbert Report, and many others. To see those segments and find information, reviews, book special features, and more, visit her website. Skloot is also a contributing editor at Popular Science magazine; she's worked as a correspondent for WNYC's RadioLab, and PBS's Nova ScienceNOW. Her writing appears in The New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Discover and others.
Skloot's Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks FAQ page is now online, and addressing questions ranging from why HeLa cells are immortal to how the Lacks family is benefiting from the book. It also includes answers to commonly asked writing questions, like, How do I break into science writing? You can read it online here.
A study involving off-label use of dexamethasone in pregnant women (without IRB oversight) is being called "The First Experiment to Attempt Prevention of Homosexuality." Is it?
This just in: Oprah and Alan Ball will be making the movie version of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for HBO. Skloot talks about the film, speculation about actors, and why HBO is the perfect home for the HeLa movie.
As part of an ongoing series answering FAQs about her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot dishes on the fact that yes, it's true, she flunked high school.
As part of an ongoing series answering FAQs about her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot talks about how she first learned about the cells at 16 and why they grabbed her enough to spend decades writing a book about them.
Got any questions for Skloot about her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks? Now's the time to ask them ... she's launching a series in which she'll answer FAQs on her blog. Now collecting questions from readers.
I've been posting about my impending book tour, and all the great coverage the book has been getting, on Twitter and Facebook, but thought I'd also post a bit of an update and press round up here, for those who (gasp) don't spend all of their time in those places.
I've been meaning to post about this for several weeks, but as we all know, things have been a weee bit hectic. But now, finally: News on the informed consent for using tissues in research front....
Are you in New York? Anywhere near New York? If so ... mark your calendars and come join us for the PUBLIC BOOK LAUNCH EVENT we've all been waiting for (well, at least we here at Culture Dish have been waiting for it ... plus a few other folks)
Big week at Culture Dish: Skloot and "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" on the cover of Publishers Weekly; an excerpt published; early praise from Susan Orlean, Ted Conover, Eric Schlosser, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc and others; and professors respond to The Immortal Life.