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The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks Cover Image E-audiobook E-audiobook

The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks

Skloot, Rebecca 1972- (Author). Campbell, Cassandra. (Narrator). Turpin, Bahni. (Added Author). OverDrive, Inc. (Added Author).

Summary: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons--as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb's effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780307712516 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)
  • ISBN: 0307712516 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)
  • ISBN: 9780307712530 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)
  • ISBN: 0307712532 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)
  • Physical Description: electronic
    electronic resource
    remote
  • Edition: Unabridged.
  • Publisher: Westminster, Md. : Books on Tape, [2010]

Content descriptions

General Note:
Title from: Title details screen.
Downloadable audio file.
Duration: 12:30:00.
Includes an interview with the author.
Participant or Performer Note: Read by Cassandra Campbell and Bahni Turpin.
System Details Note:
Requires OverDrive Media Console
Requires OverDrive Media Console (179866 KB).
Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Search for related items by subject

Subject: Lacks, Henrietta -- 1920-1951 -- Health
Cancer -- Patients -- Virginia -- Biography
HeLa cells
Cancer -- Research
Cell culture
Medical ethics
Genre: DOWNLOADABLE AUDIOBOOK.
Audiobooks.

Electronic resources

Click to access e-item (Vanderhoof Public Library card required)

► Summaries & More
▼ Additional Content
  • AudioFile Reviews : AudioFile Reviews 2010 June
    This multifaceted story interweaves a mini-biography of Henrietta Lacks and her family with an insider's look at the history of medical research and Skloot's journey to unlock the secrets of both Lacks was a terminal cancer patient, and the cells doctors preserved (without her knowledge or consent) led to many medical breakthroughs Interestingly, Caucasian Cassandra Campbell admirably portrays African-American Lacks and her associates, while only the small part of Lacks's daughter is assigned to fellow African-American Bahni Turpin The fine narration underscores the pain and frustration her family feels after Lacks' death, the purloining of her cells, and the world's failure to recognize her role However difficult it is to acknowledge unscrupulous medical experimentation, Campbell's star quality rivets listeners to this tribute to one whose life continues to improve health care worldwide JJB (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
  • Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2010 January #1
    A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Tie-in with multicity author lecture schedule. Agent: Simon Lipskar/Writers House Copyright Kirkus 2010 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.
  • Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2014 August #1

    Accessible science at its best, the audio version gives the story of Henrietta's daughter, Deborah, all the gravity and pathos it deserves. Narrated by Cassandra Campbell and Bahni Turpin, who also worked together on The Help.

    [Page 42]. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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