Elevated water velocity can affect crayfish morphology (e.g., size frequency distributions; Clark et al. 2008) and behavior and, potentially, population and community ecology and invasion dynamics (Maude and Williams 1983, Clark et al. 2008). Responses to elevated water velocity differ among crayfish species.
Henrietta Lacks was just 30 years old when she discovered a lump on her cervix while in her bathtub at home. A private-care doctor referred her to Johns Hopkins Hospital for further testing and she was diagnosed with cancer in January 1951. Lacks, the wife of a steelworker and a mother of five, was treated with radiation and sent home, but she was hospitalized the following August. She died at the age of 31 two months later. But thatâs not where her story ends. Without her knowledge or permission, doctors harvested samples of Lacksâ cervical tissue during her treatments and discovered her cancerous cells were not like any other theyâd seen â they were able to duplicate in labs and stay alive.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first immortal human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons--as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb's effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.