Others have reviewed this for Cannonball Read already, so here are the basics in case you missed it: Henrietta Lacks was a black woman who died at Johns Hopkins, where she had been admitted due to complications from cervical cancer. She had radium treatment at one point, and when she received the treatment, a biopsy of her tumor was taken at the request of a researcher. From there, the cells were cultured and became some of the first that would grow, and keep on growing, […]
On Atomic Bombs, Samba Music, and Preposterous Intelligence
Teacher. Physicist. Prankster. Ladies’ man. Incomparably brilliant human being. Though not in the same pop culture stratosphere as some of his contemporaries, Richard Feynman is nevertheless one of the titans of twentieth century science. And he’s not too shabby a storyteller, either. His memoir Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman gallivants with great aplomb across much of Feynman’s life, starting with his childhood in Queens in the depths of the Depression. As usually happens with preposterously smart folk, Feynman was a precocious child, skilled in radio […]
Yeah, You’re Probably a Little Bigoted
You’re not racist, right? I mean, if given two equally qualified candidates for a job you were hiring for, you’d be just as likely to give it to the Black person as the White person, right? And you’re in favor of same sex marriage, so you definitely don’t give any preference to straight people, right? Not so fast. The premise of this book – which is backed up by some pretty solid science – is that we all hold biases in our unconscious minds that […]
Who Wants to Live Forever?
I first saw this book at a digital library last year and it seemed interesting. Recently, a friend of mine who is studying genetic counseling, recommended it and that bumped it up the queue. I knew very little of the premise before starting the book. I love that the author used a two-fold approach, writing the biographies of both Henrietta Lacks and her cells. It seems that the cells would easily be the star of the book but the Lacks family is incredibly interesting in […]
It’s like the Double Dare obstacle course in book form!
What’s a good way to get your kids interested in life science? This book about gross stuff that’s printed in purple and green is a good start.
A visit to M.C. Escher Park: The Relativity of Dogs, Cats, and Bunnies
Radical Daffodils Review “… Orzel takes a conversational tone both with the reader and in his asides with Emmy, and if his teaching style is anything like his writing style I’d love to take one of his classes one day.”