Astral Codex Ten

Henrietta Lacks

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Henrietta Lacks

Article

Henrietta Lacks is a recurring person in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 5 times across 5 issues between October 07, 2022 and January 14, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as “people who saved the most lives, of which the Americans are Maurice Hilleman, Henrietta Lacks, Jonas Salk, and Norman Borlaug”; “Henrietta Lacks was a black woman who died of cancer in 1951”; “Congress passed a resolution honoring Lacks in 1997”. It most often appears alongside America, Astral Codex Ten, Congress.

Metadata

  • Category: People
  • Mention count: 5
  • Issue count: 5
  • First seen: October 07, 2022
  • Last seen: January 14, 2025

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

A Columbian Exchange
October 07, 2022 · Original source
Coria: I realize it’s a big ask. It just seemed sort of dishonest or small-minded to not even mention it as a possibility. There are plenty of lists of the greatest historical figures. Taking this one, selecting for only Americans or America-related people, and removing people too similar to each other, we get Columbus, Einstein, Edison, Washington, MLK, Disney, Franklin, Jonas Salk, Margaret Sanger, Susan B Anthony, and Louis Armstrong. We could combine it with this list of people who saved the most lives, of which the Americans are Maurice Hilleman, Henrietta Lacks, Jonas Salk, and Norman Borlaug - I think a good consensus list for both influential and moral might replace one of Columbus, Sanger or Franklin with Borlaug, and keep the rest. That would give us eleven honorees - enough for one holiday a month, leaving room for Christmas.
Inline links: this one, this list
Henrietta Lacks Seems Like A Nice Person, But Not A Scientific Hero
February 07, 2023 · Original source
Henrietta Lacks was a black woman who died of cancer in 1951. During her treatment, doctors took a sample of the cancer. The sample ended up with a researcher who noticed the cells were much more resilient than any other cell type then known, cancerous or otherwise. This made them extremely useful for biology experiments, and now a substantial portion of world bio research is done on cells descended from Lacks’ cancer.
It wasn’t typical to ask patient consent in the 1950s, and nobody asked Henrietta or her family for consent to sample her cells or to use them for research. This has become a typical cautionary tale of bad scientific ethics (also probably racism and sexism). Nobody compensated her family, and none of the windfall produced by researching her cells went to them. Everybody talked about HeLa cells, the amazing cell line that makes research much more effective, and nobody talked about Henrietta Lacks, the person. Companies published the HeLa cells’ DNA, and records of Lacks’ cancer, without asking family members.
And there is so much to her story. Henrietta Lacks loved to cook — spaghetti was a favourite — and she loved to dance, often with one of her five children in her arms. She dressed stylishly and wore red nail polish. She was the emotional and psychological centre of a home where the extended family gathered and where the door was always open to anyone in need.
My Presidential Platform
September 05, 2023 · Original source
Still, this would only buy us a few more years, and eventually we would have to think bigger. Mt. Rushmore (the whole mountain, not just the faces) is big enough that copying it would take twenty years of national coal production. Given that all the faces on Rushmore are white, I propose a companion mountain on the opposite side of the observation plaza, “Mt. Racemore”, featuring Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Henrietta Lacks, and Ibram X Kendi.
Subscrive Drive 2024 + Free Unlocked Posts
January 18, 2024 · Original source
Henrietta Lacks Seems Like A Nice Person, But Not A Scientific Hero - why do we celebrate someone with weird cell mutations so much more than real scientists?
Inline links: Henrietta Lacks Seems Like A Nice Person, But Not A Scientific Hero
Subscrive Drive '25 + Free Unlocked Posts
January 14, 2025 · Original source
To whet your appetite, I’m unlocking two old subscriber-only posts: Henrietta Lacks Seems Like A Nice Person, But Not A Scientific Hero and Book Review: Cyropaedia. Everyone should now be able to read these.
Inline links: Henrietta Lacks Seems Like A Nice Person, But Not A Scientific Hero, Book Review: Cyropaedia