The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

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.

Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia—a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo—to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

Next meeting date: February 11 @ 6:00 pm
Location: Jessie's House

The Hunger Games

Our next book is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Here's a preview:

Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives.

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see.

Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Next meeting: Sunday, June 12 @ 6:00 P.M.
Location: Jessie's Apartment

Secret Life of Bees

Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Dinner Prepared By: Jessie

Crockpot Herb Pork Roast
Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 4 large garlic cloves, quartered
• 1 pork loin roast, boneless, about 4-5 lbs
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground thyme
• 1/2 tsp. dried leaf sage, crumbled
• 1/4 tsp. rosemary, chopped
• 1/4 tsp. dried tarragon, crumbled (optional)
• Dash ground cloves or allspice
• 1 tsp. grated lemon peel
• 1/3 cup water
• 3 tsp. cornstarch (optional)
• 1 tsp. water (optional)

Directions:

Cut 16 small pockets into roast and insert garlic slices. In a small bowl, combine salt, herbs and lemon peel. Rub seasoning mixture into the roast. Pour 1/2 cup water into the slow cooker; add the roast. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours. Pork should read at least 160 degrees on an instant read thermometer.

If desired, thicken juices. Remove roast from juices. COmbine cornstarch with 3 teaspoons water; sitr until smooth, then stir into crockpot juices. Cook on HIGH until thickened. Serve with the pork roast.

Individual Toffee, Pecan and Peach Crisps

Ingredients:

Filling

• 6 cups frozen sliced peaches (about 2.5 lbs), thawed
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

Topping

• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 6 tsp. (3/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 3/4 cup English Toffee bits
• 1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
• Ice Cream (optional)
  

Directions:

Filling - Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheight. Place six 1 1/4 cup ramekins or custard cups on large baking sheet. Mix peaches, sugar and lime juice in a large bowl to blend. Divide filling among ramekins.

Topping - Whisk flour, brown sugar and salt into a large bowl. Using fingertips, rub in butter until mixture holds together in clumps. Stir in toffee and pecans; sprinkle over filling.

Bake crisps until filling bubbles and topping is golden brown, about 40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream, if desired.

*Note* Jessie substituted oats for the pecans in the peach crisps.