The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks [精装] 1052173

From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Science journalist Skloot makes a remarkable debut with this multilayered story about faith, science, journalism, and grace. It is also a tale of medical wonders and medical arrogance, racism, poverty and the bond that grows, sometimes painfully, between two very different womenSkloot and Deborah Lackssharing an obsession to learn about Deborah's mother, Henrietta, and her magical, immortal cells. Henrietta Lacks was a 31-year-old black mother of five in Baltimore when she died of cervical cancer in 1951. Without her knowledge, doctors treating her at Johns Hopkins took tissue samples from her cervix for research. They spawned the first viable, indeed miraculously productive, cell lineknown as HeLa. These cells have aided in medical discoveries from the polio vaccine to AIDS treatments. What Skloot so poignantly portrays is the devastating impact Henrietta's death and the eventual importance of her cells had on her husband and children. Skloot's portraits of Deborah, her father and brothers are so vibrant and immediate they recall Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family. Writing in plain, clear prose, Skloot avoids melodrama and makes no judgments. Letting people and events speak for themselves, Skloot tells a rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society's most vulnerable people. (Feb.) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist *Starred Review* The “first immortal human cells,” code-named HeLa, have flourished by the trillions in labs all around the world for more than five decades, making possible the polio vaccine, chemotherapy, and many more crucial discoveries. But where did the HeLa cells come from? Science journalist Skloot spent 10 years arduously researching the complex, tragic, and profoundly revealing story of Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old African American mother of five who came to Johns Hopkins with cervical cancer in 1951, and from whom tumor samples were taken without her knowledge or that of her family. Henrietta died a cruel death and was all but forgotten, while her miraculous cells live on, “growing with mythological intensity.” Skloot travels to tiny Clover, Virginia; learns that Henrietta’s family tree embraces black and white branches; becomes close to Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah; and discovers that although the HeLa cells have improved countless lives, they have also engendered a legacy of pain, a litany of injustices, and a constellation of mysteries. Writing with a novelist’s artistry, a biologist’s expertise, and the zeal of an investigative reporter, Skloot tells a truly astonishing story of racism and poverty, science and conscience, spirituality and family driven by a galvanizing inquiry into the sanctity of the body and the very nature of the life force. --Donna Seaman "One of the most graceful and moving nonfiction books Ive read in a very long time'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks'floods over you like a narrative dam break, as if someone had managed to distill and purify the more addictive qualities of 'Erin Brockovich,' 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' and 'The Andromeda Strain.'it feels like the book Ms. Skloot was born to write. It signals the arrival of a raw but quite real talent.Dwight Garner, The New York Times "Skloot's vivid account begins with the life of Henrietta Lacks, who comes fully alive on the page'Immortal Life' reads like a novel."--Eric Roston, The Washington Post Grippingby turns heartbreaking, funny and unsettlingraises troubling questions about the way Mrs. Lacks and her family were treated by researchers and about whether patients should control or have financial claims on tissue removed from their bodies.Denise Grady, New York Times The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a fascinating read and a ringing success. It is a well-written, carefully-researched, complex saga of medical research, bioethics, and race in America. Above all it is a human story of redemption for a family, torn by loss, and for a writer with a vision that would not let go.Douglas Whynott, The Boston Globe "Riveting...raises important questions about medical ethics...It's an amazing story...Deeply chilling... Whether those uncountable HeLa cells are a miracle or a violation, Skloot tells their fascinating story at last with skill, insight and compassion" Colette Bancroft, St. Petersburg Times The history of HeLa is a rare and powerful combination of race, class, gender, medicine, bioethics, and intellectual property; far more rare is the writer than can so clearly fuse those disparate threads into a personal story so rich and compelling. Rebecca Skloot has crafted a unique piece of science journalism that is impossible to put downor to forget.Seed magazine No one can say exactly where Henrietta Lacks is buried: during the many years Rebecca Skloot spent working on this book, even Lackss hometown of Clover, Virginia, disappeared. But that did not stop Skloot in her quest to exhume, and resurrect, the story of her heroine and her family. What this important, invigorating book lays bare is how easily science can do wrong, especially to the poor. The issues evoked here are giant: who owns our bodies, the use and misuse of medical authority, the unhealed wounds of slavery ... and Skloot, with clarity and compassion, helps us take the long view. This is exactly the sort of story that books were made to tellthorough, detailed, quietly passionate, and full of revelation.TED CONOVER, author of Newjack and The Routes of Man Its extremely rare when a reporters passion finds its match in a story. Rarer still when the people in that story courageously join that reporter in the search for what we most need to know about ourselves. When this occurs with a moral journalist who is also a true writer, a human being with a heart capable of holding all of lifes damage and joy, the stars have aligned. This is an extraordinary gift of a book, beautiful and devastatinga work of outstanding literary reportage. Read it! Its the best you will find in many many years.ADRIAN NICOLE LEBLANC, author of Random Family     The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks brings to mind the work of Philip K. Dick and Edgar Allan Poe. But this tale is true. Rebecca Skloot explores the racism and greed, the idealism and faith in science that helped to save thousands of lives but nearly destroyed a family. This is an extraordinary book, haunting and beautifully told.ERIC SCHLOSSER, author of Fast Food Nation    Skloots book is wonderful -- deeply felt, gracefully written, sharply reported. It is a story about science but, much more, about life.SUSAN ORLEAN, author of The Orchid Thief    This is a science biography like the world has never seen. What if one of the great American women of modern science and medicine--whose contribution underlay historic discoveries in genetics, the treatment and prevention of disease, reproduction, and the unraveling of the human genome--was a self-effacing African-American tobacco farmer from the Deep South? A devoted mother of five who was escorted briskly to the Jim Crow section of Johns Hopkins for her cancer treatments? What if the untold millions of scientists, doctors, and patients enriched and healed by her gift never, to this day, knew her name? What if her contribution was made without her knowledge or permission? Ladies and gentlemen, meet Henrietta Lacks. Chances are, at the level of your DNA, your inoculations, your physical health and microscopic well-being, youve already been introduced.--MELISSA FAY GREENE, author of Praying for Sheetrock and There Is No Me Without You    Heartbreaking and powerful, unsettling yet compelling, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a richly textured story of the hidden costs of scientific progress. Deftly weaving together history, journalism and biography, Rebecca Skloot?s sensitive account tells of the enduring, deeply personal sacrifice of this African American woman and her family and, at long last, restores a human face to the cell line that propelled 20th century biomedicine. A stunning illustration of how race, gender and disease intersect to produce a unique form of social vulnerability, this is a poignant, necessary and brilliant book.ALONDRA NELSON, Columbia University; editor of Technicolor: Race, Technology and Everyday Life    Rebecca Skloot has written a marvelous book so original that it defies easy description. She traces the surreal journey that a tiny patch of cells belonging to Henrietta Lackss body took to the forefront of science. At the same time, she tells the story of Lacks and her familywrestling the storms of the late twentieth century in Americawith rich detail, wit, and humanity. The more we read, the more we realize that these are not two separate stories, but one tapestry. Its part The Wire, part The Lives of the Cell, and all fascinating.CARL ZIMMER, author of Microcosm    If virtues could be cultured like cells, Rebecca Skloots would be a fine place to startfrac34;a rare combination of compassion, courage, wisdom, and intelligence. This book is extraordinary. As a writer and a human being, Skloot stands way, way out there ahead of the pack.MARY ROACH, author of Stiff and Bonk    The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks takes the reader on a remarkable journeycompassionate, troubling, funny, smartand irresistible. Along the way, Rebecca Skloot will change the way you see medical science and lead you to wonder who we should value morethe researcher or the research subject? Ethically fascinating and completely engagingI couldnt recommend it more.DEBORAH BLUM, author of The Poisoners Handbook and The Monkey Wars and the Helen Firstbrook Franklin professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison    This remarkable story of how the cervical cells of the late Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman, enabled subsequent discoveries from the polio vaccine to in vitro fertilization is extraordinary in itself; the added portrayal of Lacks's full life makes the story come alive with her humanity and the palpable relationship between race, science, and exploitation.PAULA J. GIDDINGS, author of Ida, A Sword Among Lions; Elizabeth A. Woodson 1922 Professor, Afro-American Studies, Smith College    Rebecca Skloots steadfast commitment to illuminating the life and contribution of Henrietta Lacks, one of the many vulnerable subjects used for scientific advancement, and the subsequent impact on her family is a testament to the power of solid investigative journalism. Her deeply compelling account of one familys long and troubled relationship with Americas vast medical-industrial complex is sure to become a cherished classic.ALLEN M. HORNBLUM, author of Acres of Skin and Sentenced to Science   Writing with a novelists artistry, a biologists expertise, and the zeal of an investigative reporter, Skloot tells a truly astonishing story of racism and poverty, science and conscience, spirituality and family driven by a galvanizing inquiry into the sanctity of the body and the very nature of the life force.BOOKLIST (starred review)   Science journalist Skloot makes a remarkable debut with this multilayered story about faith, science, journalism, and grace.Recalls Adrian Nicole LeBlancs Random FamilyA rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit societys most vulnerable people.PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)       REBECCA SKLOOT is a science writer whose articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover; Prevention; Glamour; and others. She has worked as a correspondent for NPRs Radio Lab and PBSs NOVA scienceNow, and is a contributing editor at Popular Science magazine. Her work has been anthologized in several collections, including The Best Food Writing and The Best Creative Nonfiction. She is a former vice president of the National Book Critics Circle, and has taught nonfiction in the creative writing programs at the University of Memphis and the University of Pittsburgh, and science journalism at New York Universitys Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. She blogs about science, life, and writing at Culture Dish, hosted by Seed magazine. This is her first book. For more information, visit her website at RebeccaSkloot.com. PROLOGUE The Woman in the Photograph Theres a photo on my wall of a woman Ive never met, its left corner torn and patched together with tape. She looks straight into the camera and smiles, hands on hips, dress suit neatly pressed, lips painted deep red. Its the late 1940s and she hasnt yet reached the age of thirty. Her light brown skin is smooth, her eyes still young and playful, oblivious to the tumor growing inside hera tumor that would leave her five children motherless and change the future of medicine. Beneath the photo, a caption says her name is Henrietta Lacks, Helen Lane or Helen Larson.             No one knows who took that picture, but its appeared hundreds of times in magazines and science textbooks, on blogs and laboratory walls. Shes usually identified as Helen Lane, but often she has no name at all. Shes simply called HeLa, the code name given to the worlds first immortal human cellsher cells, cut from her cervix just months before she died.             Her real name is Henrietta Lacks. Ive spent years staring at that photo, wondering what kind of life she led, what happened to her children, and what shed think about cells from her cervix living on foreverbought, sold, packaged, and shipped by the trillions to laboratories around the world. Ive tried to imagine how shed feel knowing that her cells went up in the first space missions to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity, or that they helped with some of the most important advances in medicine: the polio vaccine, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization. Im pretty sure that shelike most of uswould be shocked to hear that there are trillions more of her cells growing in laboratories now than there ever were in her body.              Theres no way of knowing exactly how many of Henriettas cells are alive today. One scientist estimates that if you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, theyd weigh more than 50 million metric tonsan inconceivable number, given that an individual cell weighs almost nothing. Another scientist calculated that if you could lay all HeLa cells ever grown end-to-end, theyd wrap around the Earth at least three times, spanning more than 350 million feet. In her prime, Henrietta herself stood only a bit over five feet tall.            I first learned about HeLa cells and the woman behind them in 1988, thirty-seven years after her death, when I was sixteen and sitting in a community college biology class. My instructor, Donald Defler, a gnomish balding man, paced at the front of the lecture hall and flipped on an overhead projector. He pointed to two diagrams that appeared on the wall behind him. They were schematics of the cell reproduction cycle, but to me they just looked like a neon-colored mess of arrows, squares, and circles with words I didnt understand, like MPF Triggering a Chain Reaction of Protein Activations.              I was a kid whod failed freshman year at the regular public high school because she never showed up. Id transferred to an alternative school that offered dream studies instead of biology, so I was taking Deflers class for high-school credit, which meant that I was sitting in a college lecture hall at sixteen with words like mitosis and kinase inhibitors flying around. I was completely lost.             Do we have to memorize everything on those diagrams? one student yelled.             Yes, Defler said, we had to memorize the diagrams, and yes, theyd be on the test, but that didnt matter right then. What he wanted us to understand was that cells are amazing things: There are about one hundred trillion of them in our bodies, each so small that several thousand could fit on the period at the end of this sentence. They make up all our tissuesmuscle, bone, bloodwhich in turn make up our organs.             Under the microscope, a cell looks a lot like a fried egg: It has a white (the cytoplasm) thats full of water and proteins to keep it fed, and a yolk (the nucleus) that holds all the genetic information that makes you you. The cytoplasm buzzes like a New York City street. Its crammed full of molecules and vessels endlessly shuttling enzymes and sugars from one part of the cell to another, pumping water, nutrients, and oxygen in and out of the cell. All the while, little cytoplasmic factories work 24/7, cranking out sugars, fats, proteins, and energy to keep the whole thing running and feed the nucleus. The nucleus is the brains of the operation; inside every nucleus within each cell in your body, theres an identical copy of your entire genome. That genome tells cells when to grow and divide and makes sure they do their jobs, whether thats controlling your heartbeat or helping your brain understand the words on this page.              Defler paced the front of the classroom telling us how mitosisthe process of cell divisionmakes it possible for embryos to grow into babies, and for our bodies to create new cells for healing wounds or replenishing blood weve lost. It was beautiful, he said, like a perfectly choreographed dance.             All it takes is one small mistake anywhere in the division process for cells to start growing out of control, he told us. Just one enzyme misfiring, just one wrong protein activation, and you could have cancer. Mitosis goes haywire, which is how it spreads.             We learned that by studying cancer cells in culture, Defler said. He grinned and spun to face the board, where he wrote two words in enormous print: HENRIETTA LACKS.            Henrietta died in 1951 from a vicious case of cervical cancer, he told us. But before she died, a surgeon took samples of her tumor and put them in a petri dish. Scientists had been trying to keep human cells alive in culture for decades, but they all eventually died. Henriettas were different: they reproduced an entire generation every twenty-four hours, and they never stopped. They became the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory.              Henriettas cells have now been living outside her body far longer than they ever lived inside it, Defler said. If we went to almost any cell culture lab in the world and opened its freezers, he told us, wed probably find millionsif not billionsof Henriettas cells in small vials on ice.              Her cells were part of research into the genes that cause cancer and those that suppress it; they helped develop drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and Parkinsons disease; and theyve been used to study lactose digestion, sexually transmitted diseases, appendicitis, human longevity, mosquito mating, and the negative cellular effects of working in sewers. Their chromosomes and proteins have been studied with such detail and precision that scientists know their every quirk. Like guinea pigs and mice, Henriettas cells have become the standard laboratory workhorse.              HeLa cells were one of the most important things that happened to medicine in the last hundred years, Defler said.              Then, matter-of-factly, almost as an afterthought, he said, She was a black woman. He erased her name in one fast swipe and blew the chalk from his hands. Class was over.             As the other students filed out of the room, I sat thinking, Thats it? Thats all we get? There has to be more to the story.             I followed Defler to his office.              Where was she from? I asked. Did she know how important her cells were? Did she have any children?              I wish I could tell you, he said, but no one knows anything about her.             After class, I ran home and threw myself onto my bed with my biology textbook. I looked up cell culture in the index, and there she was, a small parenthetical: In culture, cancer cells can go on dividing indefinitely, if they have a continual supply of nutrients, and thus are said to be immortal. A striking example is a cell line that has been reproducing in culture since 1951. (Cells of this line are called HeLa cells because their original source was a tumor removed from a woman named Henrietta Lacks.) That was it. I looked up HeLa in my parents encyclopedia, then my dictionary: No Henrietta.             As I graduated...