If all nonfiction science books read like this one, I can tell you there'd sure be a lot more people reading them - I am finding I really enjoy this creative non-fiction genre. This book was fascinating, informative and impactful. It is shocking how little the world knows about HeLa - the first immortal cells that revolutionized science and medicine, saved millions of lives, and will likely save more....all which came from a black woman named Henrietta Lacks in the 50s. It's a mix of everything that makes a great story - scandals, human interests, mysteries, fascinating science, and thought-provoking issues like bioethics and racism in the medical industry (questions, I might add that aren't answered even now and you might want to be a little more aware before donating plasma). I also really appreciated the contrast of the historical and scientific history to the real life repercussions these cells have had on the surviving extremely poor family of Henrietta. The author spends a lot of time on them (which some people criticize), but I don't think this would be nearly as interesting without them. I grew to really like Deborah especially, and I mostly felt the author partly used them to paint an interesting picture of how different the world is for them - and most regular people - compared the world of science and how easy for most of us to know jack sh*t about what that community is doing. Really, really excellent book.
No comments:
Post a Comment