Book
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- Published
- 2010
- Genre
- Nonfiction
- Publisher
- Random House Audio
- Pages
- 370
- Words
- 101230
- URL
- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6493208-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_37
Reading measures
- Accelerated Reader level
- 8.0
- AR interest level
- UG — upper grades, 9–12
- Lexile
- 1140L
- Suggested reading age
- ages 14–18
- Ambleside year
- Year 12 onwards · ages 17–20
An Ambleside year is a year of the Ambleside Online programme, not a reader's age. Year 0 is its first year, and a book used over several years shows the span. The ages beside it are that band offered two grades up and none down, which is how we offer a band; they are a placement, not a reading measure.
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 enslaved 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.
ISBN
- ISBN-13
- 9780307712509
- ISBN-10
- 0307712508
Tags
HistoryMorality/EthicsScienceScience-BiologySociety