redfiona99

Yearly memes are late, as in fact are most of things I'm supposed to have done. Could I have a re-run on that meme answer? I am most definitely The White Rabbit from Alice In Wonderland. (If anyone knows of anyone who has made an 'I'm late, I'm late' white rabbit icon, I'd be obliged if you could link me to them. Credit will, of course, be given.)

On to other things that are late include my review of what was certainly the most interesting book I read this year, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immortal_Life_of_Henrietta_Lacks)

First, my major complaint, sort of - I don't like it when the author of a book (unless it's an autobiography) is present in a book, particularly non-fiction books, so when this opened with a bit about the author's background I was decidedly not impressed. Of course, as is later made clear, it took an outsider to raise the story into the popular culture due to the way the family has been treated, both historically, and in the present day, due to their race and their lack of education.

The history of both Henrietta Lacks, and the cells that killed her, is clearly related, and the science well communicated.

The thing I think was done best was the way the author got across that many of the early scientists weren't trying to do terrible things, they were trying to do good, and some good may have come out of what they did, but it doesn't change the fact that what they did to Henrietta Lack's family was terrible. It's probably one of the best examples of why ethics lectures for biology students are a good idea (but please, could we have concrete stuff and not Heidegger and Kant).

Another thing the author did well was the social commentary aspect, the way that in today's America, the people least likely to benefit from the advances that have come and will come from Henrietta Lack's cells are people like her family, who are trapped due to a mixture of material poverty and poverty of opportunities.

The area of patent law and biological matter (which is only going to grow and grow) is also touched upon, in a way that explains the various arguments reasonably well, although the vexed matter could probably have done with a bit more going into.

I think this is a very good book, thought-provoking in the extreme, particular as a research biologist (although thankfully, not with human material), with an emphasis on the source of our data, and the fact that educating everyone about science is something that should be done because you can't have informed consent without it.

1 - The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
2 - Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington
3 - Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
4 - Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Revised Edition by James H. Jones
5 - Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
6 - Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
7 - State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
8 - Room by Emma Donoghue
9 - Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison by Allen M. Hornblum
10 - The Warmth of Other Suns:The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

No unsuggestions given.