(Via BoingBoing)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a new book by science writer Rebecca Skloot explores this famous story and the ethical minefield that often lies between the expectations and assumptions of the scientific community and those of the public, as well as the confusion and anger felt by members of Henrietta Lacks’ family when the truth was uncovered.
“Henrietta Lacks is your mother-in-law?” he asked, suddenly excited. “Did she die of cervical cancer?”
Bobette stopped smiling and snapped, “How’d you know that?”
“Those cells in my lab have to be hers,” he …

In preparation for the SymbioticA Workshop over the weekend I read ‘The Tissue Culture King’ a short story by the evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley. The story concerns an English biologist held prisoner by a ‘lost tribe’ somewhere in darkest Africa who, motivated by the desire to experiment, convinces the ruling elite to use biotechnology to reinterpret and transform the religious practices of the society. I was fascinated by the detailed descriptions of the science involved in tissue culture. To my mind the technology described is far more  advanced than I …