#beth rogers

Grazia, December 1983.

Photographed by Marc Hispard.

Vogue Italia, March 1984.

Photographed by Renato Grignaschi.

Grazia, December 1983.

Photographed by Marc Hispard.

The Lacks family is finally asked for consent and reaches historic agreement with the NIH

Hey, Class of 2016 - does The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot ring a bell? Ah, yes! Our first year common reading book! Well for those slackers who never actually read it, the book explores issues such as bioethics, racism, and poverty ... and I can't recommend it highly enough. Now, three years after the book's publication, the Lacks family has once again made headlines. 

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was 31 years old, black, poor, and uneducated. Before her death, doctors removed some of her tumor cells for research without her knowledge or consent. Those cells turned out to be the first human cell line that continued to grow and divide in culture. The cells, known to scientists as HeLa, were shipped to laboratories all over the world. Since then, the cells have become one of the most important tools for biomedical research, leading to the development of the polio vaccine, gene mapping, chemotherapy, and in vitro fertilization. They've been used to develop drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, and Parkinson's, and have been a vital part of research into the genes that cause cancer. Biotech companies have made billions of dollars off of Henrietta's cells. But the Lacks family? They can't even afford health insurance. 

The book brought up a lot of ethical questions regarding medical consent and whether or not we have legal ownership of our cells. Think about it - if a doctor took a sample of your tissue for medical research, would you want them to tell you what it was being used for? If your cells were then used to develop a multi-billion dollar cure for some disease, would you want a cut of the profits? Or acknowledgement? Henrietta Lacks had no idea that her cells were being used for research, and neither did her family. In fact, they didn't even find out about HeLa cells and their medical significance until decades after Henrietta's death. But after 62 years, the National Institute of Health has finally asked the Lacks family for their consent. 

This past March, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory published the genome of a line of HeLa cells on a public online database. Another study involving the sequencing of Henrietta's genome, funded by the NIH at the University of Washington, was about to be published in Nature. The Lacks family objected to such publications due to their privacy concerns over the medical information that could be publicly interpreted from their late relative's DNA. In turn, the Europeans took down the public data and the study at the University of Washington was stopped. The agreement that resulted between the Lacks family and the NIH is meant to honor the family's privacy regarding Henrietta's genome and to give them some control over how it is used. While they won't get financial compensation (and didn't ask for it), they'll be acknowledged in all future scientific publications involving the HeLa genome and will have a say who is granted access. It should also be said that the NIH had no legal obligation to give the family any control over access to the genetic data. But they did it because it was the right thing to do. 

And my favorite part about the agreement - this amazing selfie of the Lacks family with NIH Director Francis S. Collins (posted on his twitter account @NIHDirector).

Beth Rogers '16

Read more here and here and here. Follow Rebecca Skloot @rebeccaskloot and the Lacks Family @lacksfamily for more updates. 

You can also donate to the Lacks family at henriettalacksfoundation.org or lacksfamily.net

And for goodness sake Class of 2016, read the stinkin' book already - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (that goes for everyone really, it's a great book). 

According to this article from Scientific American, petrichor is a result of aromatic molecules being displaced into the air by falling water. In wooded areas, the compound that is attributed to that damp earth smell is actually a by-product of certain algae and bacteria known as geosmin. And after a summer storm, you’re probably going to get hints of wet vegetation mixed in as well.  For city dwellers, the aromas stirred up on the street by a summer rain storm may not be as pleasant … but to each their own. Check out the rest of the article for more interesting information about the smells associated with certain weather patterns! 

-Beth 

Most books are made up entirely of organic materials - paper, ink, fibers, glue … you get the picture. Over time, these materials degrade (as all organic matter tends to do) and release a combination of volatile organic compounds that give our favorite dusty pages that “old book" aroma. Researchers have found that 15 of these compounds, including acetic acid, benzaldehyde, and butanol, are consistent markers for book degradation. Of course, a book’s smell also depends on environmental conditions such as smoke and dust, as well as the substances it has come into contact with. Translation - last semester’s organic chemistry textbook will forever smell like that cup of coffee you spilled during finals week … 

There's a new blue planet in town ... and it rains glass. 

With the help of NASA's Hubble telescope, astronomers have been able to confirm the color of a planet beyond our own solar system for the first time. HD 189733b was spotted 63 light-years away, and appears to be a dark azure blue. According to NASA, the blue color doesn't indicate the presence of water, "but rather a hazy, blow-torched atmosphere containing high clouds laced with silicate particles." But that's not the coolest part - they also suggest the likely possibility that this gas giant RAINS GLASS. The planet is classified among a unique group of planets known as 'hot Jupiters', due to the fact that they orbit extremely close to their parent stars. HD 189733b is only 2.9 million miles away from its parent star - Mercury, for comparison, is 29 million miles from the Sun. Due to this proximity, the planet is gravitationally locked so that one side always faces the star and the other side is constantly cloaked in darkness. Oh yeah, and it's daytime temperature is a whomping 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit ... which just so happens to be hot enough so that condensing silicates could form very small droplets of glass. But it gets better - NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows that the day side and night side temperatures of this alien world differ by about 500 degrees. Astronomers predict that a temperature disparity that large would cause 4,500 mph winds to blow from the dark side of the planet to the light side ... winds strong enough to make the aforementioned glass droplets to rain sideways. 

A blue planet that rains glass sideways? If that's not the most awesome thing you've ever heard, you're wrong.