Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine-all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. Rather than reading it quickly and filing it, readers will likely slow down to meet its pace and might continue carrying it around as a reminder.Ī dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.” In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention. Indeed, hurrying around in search of contentment seemed a perfect way of ensuring I’d never be settled or content.” This book isn’t a meditation guide or a New-Age tract but rather a celebration of the age-old practice of sitting with no goal in mind and no destination in sight. He frames this collection of interrelated essays with the example of songwriter/poet Leonard Cohen, “my hero since boyhood,” who retreated into a monk’s remove and has returned to peak popularity and extensive, exhaustive touring, through his 70s, in three-hour concerts that “felt as if the whole spellbound crowd was witnessing something of the monastery, the art that stillness deepens.” Iyer offers plenty of suggestions for those inspired to go deeper into the practice, but the book and the act of reading it offer a prescriptive that is tough to deny: “In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. As a prolific journalist for Time magazine and a travel writer, the author experienced frequent exhilaration but also discovered that he “was racing around so much that I never had the chance to see where I was going, or to check whether I was truly happy. The latest from Iyer ( The Man Within My Head, 2012, etc.) can fit in a pocket and be read in one sitting. A brief, spiritually minded book that offers practical wisdom on reducing stress through stillness.