The book that shocked the world in 2010. A bestseller that has broken all imaginable sales records. Who has the right to our body, or its parts, or biomaterial taken for analysis: we, doctors, scientists..? It was first possible to cultivate “immortal” cells in the human body in the 1950s. This literally turned the entire medical science upside down. HeLa cells helped develop vaccines against polio, reveal the secrets of cancer, viruses and the effects of a nuclear explosion; they helped make important steps in the study of artificial insemination, cloning and genetic mapping. And they inevitably became the subject of “buying and selling”: some became rich, others did not even suspect that “experiments” were being carried out on them. This book is a dramatic story about the fate of a simple the woman who gave the world her immortal cells, about honest and dishonest doctors, about legal battles, the birth of bioethics. A beautiful and dramatic piece of scientific research that you won't be able to put down. Portions of this book have appeared in various forms in articles: "Taking a Piece of You" in the New York Times Magazine (© 2006 by Rebecca Skloot); “Henrietta’s Dance,” Johns Hopkins Magazine (© 2000 by Rebecca Skloot); "Stop Patenting the Breast Cancer Gene," Slate's Double X (© 2009 by Rebecca Skloot).