What Rebecca's Reading
- 'Serpent-Handling' West Virginia Pastor Dies From Snake Bite A “serpent-handling” West Virginia pastor died after his rattlesnake bit him during a church ritual, just as the man had apparently watched a snake kill his father years before.
- A Dispute Over Who Owns a Twitter Account Goes to Court How much is a tweet worth? And how much does a Twitter follower cost?
- A dollar badly spent: New facts on processed food in school lunches In a collaboration between The New York Times and the Investigative Fund, reporter Lucy Komisar delved into the billion-dollar business of the national school lunch program and found some unsettling news.
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March 28, 2011
The Immortal Life Called a ‘Riveting Book’ and an ‘Amazing Feat’
Comments Off on The Immortal Life Called a ‘Riveting Book’ and an ‘Amazing Feat’
In Colette Bancroft’s recent profile of Rebecca Skloot in the St. Petersburg Times, Rebecca describes the Immortal Book Tour: “I left my house on Jan. 29, 2010, and I’m still going.”
Rebecca describes the journey that took her from writing a paper in a creative writing class at CSU to bringing the story of Henrietta Lacks to the world: “I wanted to show that there are human beings behind every sample,” Rebecca says, “but there is a human being behind every scientist, too.”
What Skloot, 38, does in her riveting book is an amazing feat in itself. She tells the complex scientific side of the story with clarity and confidence, and she tells the moving human story of Henrietta and the family she left behind — a family the author grew close to — and the scientists who developed the HeLa cell lines with compassion and respect.
The Henrietta Lacks Foundation
The Henrietta Lacks Foundation strives to provide financial assistance to needy individuals who have made important contributions to scientific research without their knowledge or consent.