![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
merengotNot a personal post. I think this journal may evolve to some sort of book reviewing since I'm constantly posting other stuff at Tumblr. Who knows.
Review time!
Henrietta Lacks was a black woman born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. She mostly grew up poor and worked mostly as a tobacco farmer. Around in her early thirties, she contacted a form of cervical cancer and for the next few years would undergo treatments (that were often very painful). She eventually died in 1951. Her cells in her cervix multiplied in the millions, something that caught the attention of medical doctors.From there on, her cells would be used to develop the polio vaccine, as well for cloning, gene mapping and more. Her cells would be known as HeLa. However, despite the fame that her cells got, Henrietta herself remained unknown and her family did not get any compensation from her cells being used. The author Rebecca Skloot explores certain topics such as medicine, ethics, race and consent.
This is a book that has been getting a lot of press, with a lot of positive reviews. And I feel that it lives to its hype. I like how there is a combination of science and narratives. It's a topic that I didn't have much knowledge from, but it was certainly informative to know about it. And while biology terminology is used, Skloot manages to discuss the biological stuff clearly, but without being too academic. If the topics of science, ethics or race (or a combination) interests you, then this book should be right up your alley.
Review time!
Henrietta Lacks was a black woman born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. She mostly grew up poor and worked mostly as a tobacco farmer. Around in her early thirties, she contacted a form of cervical cancer and for the next few years would undergo treatments (that were often very painful). She eventually died in 1951. Her cells in her cervix multiplied in the millions, something that caught the attention of medical doctors.From there on, her cells would be used to develop the polio vaccine, as well for cloning, gene mapping and more. Her cells would be known as HeLa. However, despite the fame that her cells got, Henrietta herself remained unknown and her family did not get any compensation from her cells being used. The author Rebecca Skloot explores certain topics such as medicine, ethics, race and consent.
This is a book that has been getting a lot of press, with a lot of positive reviews. And I feel that it lives to its hype. I like how there is a combination of science and narratives. It's a topic that I didn't have much knowledge from, but it was certainly informative to know about it. And while biology terminology is used, Skloot manages to discuss the biological stuff clearly, but without being too academic. If the topics of science, ethics or race (or a combination) interests you, then this book should be right up your alley.
