rskloot

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Rebecca Skloot

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. 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.

Posts by this author

May 15, 2009
Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union and several other groups filed suit against Myriad Genetics -- the company that holds the patent on the breast cancer gene.  They're hoping to get the breast cancer gene patent revoked, but more than that, they're aiming to stop gene patenting…
May 3, 2009
Yes, that's right folks, the end of the world is near, but at least we won't look silly wearing our N95 respirator masks.  No.  Thanks to Flu Fashion Respirators, we can now avoid swine flu and other plagues while looking like ... bandits from cheesy western movies! Or ... better yet ... hippie…
April 2, 2009
After seven happy years serving as a vice president, I have just finished my second term on the National Book Critics Circle board of directors.  While I was on the board, I put together a document  of tips for breaking into book reviewing called, Strategies for Breaking in and Staying in: …
March 24, 2009
Today, in their segment called "Seeing Eye Horse Shocks Store Patrons," Good Morning America featured a woman riding her full sized "Seeing Eye horse" through the grocery store (pictured left). In doing so, it made one of the most common media mistakes: focusing on the quirk factor (woman riding…
March 22, 2009
Not long ago, I posted about the fact that the world was obsessed with Jade Goody's cancer, but not talking about the real story behind her diagnosis.  Today, news hit that she has died.  Unfortunately, this story brought out the worst in many people right to the end.
March 21, 2009
I'm pleased to announce that, starting in May 2009, I'll be writing a weekly science and health column for Slate's new Double X Magazine. I'll be covering any and all science that might be of interest to women (note: I won't just be covering science about specific female issues -- though I'll…
March 18, 2009
Can't blog ... lost in AMAZING ARCHIVE OF MEDICAL IMAGES!  Today from BoingBoing:   This previously unreported archive at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., contains 500,000 scans of unique images so far, with another 225,000 set to be digitized this year. Mike Rhode,…
March 7, 2009
There's been lots and lots written about the ethics of commercially cloning dogs and other pets -- a practice I see as a prime example of extreme human idiocy.  Who spends gazillions of dollars cloning a pet dog when it's widely known that (a) the resulting puppies won't be copies of the origianl…
March 2, 2009
The other day, the NY Times ran a story called "Picture Emerging on Genetic Risks of IVF. It reported on a new Centers for Disease Control study that found that children conceived through the most common infertility treatments had a slightly increased risk of several birth defects, including…
February 28, 2009
London (and much of the U.S.) is currently obsessed with Jade Goody, who is dying of stage 4 cervical cancer at the age of 27 in a very public way: On television. One thing I find amazing is that, in the mountain of media coverage on this (including articles in the New York Times, the Guardian,…
February 28, 2009
Okay, so Culture Dish is now back from it's short down time for mourning (and finishing my massive pre-tenure dossier, which was due yesterday and looked something like this).  Lots of posting to catch up on.   First, this:  After reading my recent NYTimes Magazine story on the use of non-…
February 12, 2009
Culture Dish is mourning:  After an amazingly long and wonderful life, my dog Bonny died at home peacefully on February 7, 2009, just two months shy of her 20th birthday. She was an incredible creature. Her story (which I wrote in 2004) inspired millions and forced good change on New York City.…
February 7, 2009
The new stimulus package includes serious cuts to science funding (like nixing 100% of the National Science Foundation's $$).  This -- as an old family friend of mine used to say -- is in the forefront of the not good.  Details here.  Contact folks to voice opposition here. 
February 6, 2009
Researchers have grown a "Living Doll" that looks like some strange mix between Gumbi and a gingerbread man but is actually made of living cancer cells (see above).  According to the New Scientist, the technique used to grow the Gumbi Gingerbread Man "could allow drugs to be tested on more…
February 5, 2009
In a fairly hilarious slip, yesterday a USA Today said researchers had found a 2500 foot snake fossil in Colombia.  Uh, make that a 2500 pound snake (it was about 40 feet long). But still:  BIG SNAKE!!  And it was 65 million years old (OLD SNAKE!!).  The Independent's headline called it, "The…
February 5, 2009
The Department of Justice has withdrawn its proposed ADA regulations that would have banned the use of assistance monkeys, birds, miniature horses, etc.   This was in response to a memo from Obama's Chief of Staff directing all agencies to hold off on any new regulations until they could be…
February 4, 2009
Yesterday, one of my dogs got into a stash of chocolate (sigh), which had me up at 2am doing the dreaded hydrogen peroxide trick, since chocolate is toxic to dogs. When I complained about my night a friend sent me this link (!!) saying, Just be glad your dog didn't eat a kitchen knife (which is…
February 3, 2009
A few hours ago, Joe Biden swore in the new head of the Department of Justice -- the first African American Attorney General in history.  This is the man who will be deciding, among other things, the future of guide miniature horses and assistance parrots. Culture Dish will be watching to see…
January 23, 2009
In this Sunday's Washington Post, I reviewed Hannah Holmes's book The Well-Dressed Ape.  Overall it was a pretty positive review, but I criticized her for the way she linked testosterone (via left-handedness and ring-finger length) with various traits, including violence, autism, homosexuality,…
January 22, 2009
There's a fascinating story in the new issue of The New Scientist about people's DNA being tested without their knowledge.  Suspicious spouses are sneaking DNA samples from their partner's underwear; men and women are covertly testing their children to find out if they're really biologically…
January 20, 2009
As part of my ongoing follow up to my recent New York Times Magazine story about the use of non-canine service animals and the DOJ's efforts to ban them:  I've been saying for a few weeks that the currently proposed species ban might not become law if it wasn't approved before Bush left office. …
January 17, 2009
A quick post as part of my ongoing follow up to my recent New York Times Magazine story about the use of non-canine service animals and the DOJ's efforts to ban them:  There's an interesting discussion going on about how limiting service animal species also limits religious freedom ... In the…
January 17, 2009
I'm giving a talk today with Tom Levenson at 4:30 today at ScienceOnline 09 titled "How to Become a (Paid) Science Journalist: Advice for Bloggers."  Below the jump I've posted links to two handouts I've written offering tips for breaking into publication -- folks not able to make the talk might…
January 17, 2009
I'm speaking at the ScienceOnline09 Conference in Durham, NC, today so I have little time to post, but I wanted to throw up this fun thing from the Boston Globe to keep everyone occupied while I'm away: "DO YOU EVER want to change the way you see the world? Wouldn't it be fun to hallucinate on your…
January 15, 2009
Every time I see that someone has joined the Six Degrees of Separation experiment group on Facebook (which now has more than 2.5 million people in it), I think about something I posted about on Culture Dish a few years ago: At this point, pretty much everyone knows the theory of Six Degrees of…
January 14, 2009
Here's some good solid (and useful) science for you: Researchers in Liverpool have announced that "being pelted by a raw egg may result in eye injury." How they know: They studied the medical records of 18,651 patients who'd gone to an eye unit over the course of 14 months. Thirteen turned out to…
January 14, 2009
Yesterday was the first day I was able to post since the ScienceBlogs upgrade because of glitches in the system.  Now I'm headed off to Durham, NC, until Sunday.  More below the jump: I'll be visiting a Duke science journalism class and speaking about my book at a Women in Science and Engineering…
January 13, 2009
Right about now, many people are starting to fail at their New Year's resolutions. It happens every year: You were good for a couple weeks, but right about now you're starting to slip with a few cookies, some skipped days at the gym ... Why? Because humans aren't very good at changing, which…
January 9, 2009
In a display of stunningly bad timing given all the comments people have been posting here in recent days, the entire ScienceBlogs network will be down from 1pm today until sometime Saturday (or whenever they're done) for a system upgrade. I won't be able to post, and readers won't be able to…
January 8, 2009
As part of ongoing follow up on my story in this week's New York Times Magazine, I've been posting about a Department of Justice document leaked to me with the wording of their proposal to ban all non-canine service animals. Yesterday I posted the DOJ's rationale behind the species ban. I've since…