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Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer, and a contributing editor at Popular Science magazine; she's worked as a correspondent for the NPR show RadioLab, and PBS Nova ScienceNOW. Her writing appears in The New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Discover and others. She teaches in the University of Memphis's creative writing program. Her first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is forthcoming from Crown on February 2, 2010. 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. Click Welcome to Culture Dish for an introduction to this blog and its author.
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Category: Bioethics
Calling all academics: If you'd like a free advanced copy of my book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, to consider it for course adoption, get thee to Random House's academic blog and request a copy quick, while supplies last (which probably won't be long at the rate things are going).
Posted by Rebecca Skloot at 9:15 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Bioethics
A federal district court has just agreed to hear the ACLU's case against the breast cancer gene patent. When the case was first filed, many legal experts were sure the case would be dismissed due to it's unusual approach: it claims that the practice of patenting genes is unconstitutional.
Posted by Rebecca Skloot at 6:23 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Bioethics
Skloot will be speaking about her new book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (aka HeLa), at universities, scientific organizations, bookstores, book groups, high schools, and more as part of a grass-roots, 3-month book tour (starting 2/2/10). See her interactive tour map to help bring the story of HeLa and the ethics of tissue culture to your town.
Posted by Rebecca Skloot at 9:59 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Animals
Because of the flood of responses I got to yesterday's post on The Insanity of the FDA Approved Obesity Drug for Dogs, I thought I'd start a series of follow up posts to answer the many questions I got by email and in the comments here.
Posted by Rebecca Skloot at 9:56 AM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Bioethics
In a starred pre-publication review, Publishers Weekly calls The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (about HeLa, by yours truly), "a remarkable debut ... a rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society's most vulnerable people." See post for full review, and the book's shiny new cover!
Posted by Rebecca Skloot at 9:05 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Book Related
Yes, that's right, we here at Culture Dish are actually STILL ALIVE! Though you wouldn't know it from our feed.
Posted by Rebecca Skloot at 3:45 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Bioethics
Speaking of the debate over patents interfering with medical care: A promising new drug for treating Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) is not available to patients due to a patent dispute.
Posted by Rebecca Skloot at 10:29 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Bioethics
The ACLU has launched a suit against the holder of the breast cancer gene patent with hopes of stopping the practice of gene patenting. Skloot covers the suit, its history, and its odds of success.
Posted by Rebecca Skloot at 4:29 PM • 32 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
Rebecca Skloot's Tips for Successful Book Reviewing: "Strategies for Breaking in and Staying in: Getting started as a critic, building your reviewing portfolio, going national, and keeping editors happy."
Posted by Rebecca Skloot at 5:07 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Animals
Good Morning America's segment today on non-canine service animals was a classic oversimplification of a complex story that makes one of the most common media mistakes: it focuses on the quirk without getting into any of the serious issues involved.
Posted by Rebecca Skloot at 11:35 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
