The book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is about how Henrietta Lacks' cells changed medical history by living for years and years, but many people didn't know that the true story behind the woman with immortal cells. Aside from knowing about HeLa cells, no one had heard of Henrietta Lacks or how she came to be. Many people didn't even know Henrietta was black. No one knew about the life she lived, her family, where she worked or anything else about this mysterious woman who changed the history of medicine. That is until Rebecca Skloot decided to look for information about her and wrote this book. Rebecca Skloot was a young student who didn't pay much attention in class and never showed up because nothing really interested her. One day in biology class, her biology teacher talked about HeLa cells and how they were still living outside her body thirty-seven years after her death. Her biology teacher said a few things about her and her cells, but nothing was about the person behind the cells, and Skloot was intrigued. All she was told about Henrietta was that Henrietta was a black woman and that class was over for the day. Skloot thought there must be something more to the woman behind the cells, so he went to his professor's office and asked her. '"I wish I could tell you," he said, "but no one knows anything about her"' (page 4) is what he said when she asked him about her. So Skloot decided to look for her and see what he could find. But nothing said more than she had learned that day in biology class or mentioned anything that interested her, so Skloot began to uncover the story of what happened to Henrietta Lacks. Skloot was qualified to write this book because of… middle of paper… knowledge and experiments on these cells. There were many doctors interested in HeLa cells, so Mr. Gey sent cells to many doctors across the country. These doctors probably didn't think that HeLa cells would have a big impact on the world of medicine. Today HeLa cells are used to create many vaccines and for research. Without the discovery and HeLa cells, there would probably be no vaccines against diseases and many people would still die from the common cold. HeLa cells have helped scientists understand many of the diseases we have today and have also helped understand how they affect the body. HeLa cells are the main reason we live so long. Today, HeLa cells continue to grow and live in laboratories around the world. Works Cited Skloot, Rebecca. The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Corona Editori, 2010.