

Immortal cells of Henrietta Lacks - ilkhd2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa

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matth
Adam Curtis made a great documentary about Henrietta Lacks 10 years ago called
"The Way of All Flesh."

I definitely recommend it:
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8448974573505946013>

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jayair
Just finished watching it. The story is truly fascinating. I started off
thinking "we have been lucky to find a case like hers". Then I realized that
if her cells could practically survive anything, the odds of us finding it are
not as bad as they seem.

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lkrubner
It is worth noting the real damage that cells such as these have caused in
labs all over the world. Given the way they have contaminated lab testing
materials, and the they have thrown off results, one has to realize that hardy
cells are capable of undermining large categories of tests. Hela cells are now
well documented, but how many other such cases are there?

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chaosmachine
<http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=677>

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DannoHung
Has anyone ever written a science fiction story based on this?

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tlowrimore
I don't know about a sci-fi story, but the non-fiction book, "The Immortal
Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot is friggin amazing.

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ilkhd2
One of the most interesting (for me) facts is that the scientists put this
organism into separate family, and in fact, the cells themselves behave more
like amoeba, but genetically way different from them,

