The World's Best Book Summaries
Who was the father of Henrietta Lacks? How did John Randall Pleasant handle his large family after his wife died? Why did Johnny Pleasant move the family away from Roanoke? Johnny Pleasant was the father of Henrietta Lacks and her nine siblings. His family lived on the Lacks family tobacco farm near Clover, Virginia. Learn about Johnny Pleasant and his large extended family.
Why do people have give informed consent before participating in a research study? Is it in part because of Chester Southam’s experiment? How many people did Dr. Chester Southam inject with live cancer cells? Chester Southam was a researcher at Sloan-Kettering who studied HeLa cells to see if you could get cancer from contact with the cells. Chester Southam’s experiment injected live cancer cells into people, many times without their permission. Learn about Dr. Chester Southam and his unethical research, including what happened to him when people found out.
Why does the city of Atlanta have a Henrietta Lacks Day? Who is the doctor that advocated for that recognition? Where is Dr. Roland Pattillo now? Roland Pattillo is a gynecologist that organized the first HeLa conference. He was also one of the few African-American students that studied under the doctor that responsible for the spread of HeLa cell cultures. Learn more about Roland Pattillo and his efforts to recognize Henrietta Lacks.
Is a house an asset or a liability? Can choosing not to own a house help you achieve your financial goals faster? In Rich Dad, Poor Dad Robert Kiyosaki asked the question “is a house an asset or a liability?” Kiyosaki argues that owning a house as a primary residence is a liability. While popular opinion believes that owning a house is an asset, Kiyosaki discusses the different between assets and liabilities below and dives into why he thinks a house is a liability.
What makes it ethical to perform experiments on people? How does a doctor get permission to take blood or tissue samples from a patient? What type of voluntary consent or informed consent is needed? Voluntary consent is when a person willingly participates in a procedure or experiment. Informed consent in research requires the person to know what they’re agreeing to as opposed to just agreeing to do something. Read more about the issue of voluntary consent for Henrietta Lacks and informed consent in research using her cells.
What is Porter’s theory of competitive advantage? What does it mean and how does it work? Porter’s theory of competitive advantage explains that if you have a real competitive advantage, compared with rivals, you operate at a lower cost, command a premium price, or both. What actually goes into building the advantage is trickier. Study this to figure out whether your business has an enduring competitive advantage.
What ethics issues were raised by The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks? Did researchers have Henrietta Lacks’ consent to use her tissue? How have standards changed? In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, ethics are an important discussion. Henrietta Lacks’ informed consent was not considered in using her tissue for HeLa. Read about consent in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, ethics questions raised, and current informed consent requirements.
What is Michael Porter’s value chain analysis, and what does it mean for your business? Michael Porter’s value chain analysis can help you understand how a company actually works based on the activities it performs in a specific sequence.
How did HeLa become so widespread? When many cell cultures exhibited similarities to HeLa what did scientists discover? How did the research community address the HeLa cells’ contamination of all cell cultures? Stanley Gartler is a geneticist that presented his finding that all of the most-used cell cultures were HeLa, at least in part. Gartler had discovered HeLa cells’ contamination. It rocked the research community. Find out how HeLa cells contamination occurred and how researchers like Stanley Gartler responded.
Who is author Rebecca Skloot? Where did she get the idea for her book about Henrietta Lacks? How did Skloot research and write the book that went on to become an HBO miniseries? Rebecca Skloot is the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. She studied biology in college and became a science reporter before writing the book. Learn about author Rebecca Skloot and what sparked her interest in Henrietta Lacks and her amazing cells.