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.
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?
Anyone interested in Henrietta Lacks and the grave marker finally placed on her long unmarked grave this weekend should click here immediately for a beautiful post by scientist David Kroll, who attended the unveiling ceremony and took many photos.
Henrietta Lacks (aka HeLa) has been lying in an unmarked grave since her death in 1951. Today, thanks to Dr. Roland Pattillo at Morehouse School of Medicine, who donated a headstone for her after reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, her grave is officially marked. Photo included.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.