Reading Assignment 10/26.

1. Opinion and Interpretation.
  Actually, this book is not easy to me. However, I could read the book not difficultly when I use dictionary and totally concentrate on the book because the story of this book is really interesting and I could learn many things by reading the book.

 First of all, I think the Author wanted to tell readers of the book about all the story of Henrietta including from her fmaily as well as all of the behind story that was unfair and the HeLa cells. Writing the book, she wanted the readers of the book to realize that the most important thing is himan being eventhough science is alsp important. The thing we should always remember is that science existes for human-being ---not finished
.

HW - #5 : 137-176

post on your blog, a summary, an impression, and a question to the section you have read.

1. Summary

   Scientist thought the HeLa cells was so robust that they can be alive everywhere. And they wanted to know the changes of Henriatta’s cells in space. When the first humans went into orbit, HeLa cell was being together so researchers could study the effects of space travel, the nutritional needs of cells in space and how cancerous and non cancerous cells responded differently to zero gravity. They found out by the research that it seemed like all normal cell growing in culture but eventually died or underwent spontaneous transformation and as well as became cancerous.

At that time, Lewis Coriell, renowned cell culturist, published a paper and pointed out one that other researchers hadn’t considered that the HeLa was the contaminant. After his paper was published, Coriell and a few other top tissue culturist met together and talk avout the state of their field which they worried was becoming a disaster. And they founded a reference collection of cells. Their goal was that making a nonprofit federal cell at America Type Cultural Collection. Gey shared HeLa cell other researchers and each of them tested and examined using the cells.

 In 1960, French researchers discovered that when cells were infected with certain viruses in culture, they clumped together and sometimes fused.

 Additionally in 1965 two British scientists created the first human-animal hybrids as well as they found what genes do and how they work. And a British scientist tried to fuse HeLa with chicken cells. And the discovery was right and showed that something in cells regulated genes.

 Soon after a pair of researcher at New York University discovered that human hybrids was unprofessional production.

   In 1966, Stanley Gartler a geneticist announced he’d found a “technical problem” in their field and pointed out the many cells cell were contaminated by HeLa cells.

  Deborah got pregnant when she was in junior in high school. And she also has had second children. However she left her house with her children because her husband caused violence to her.

And Joe was put in prison because he killed ivy and he was changed by reading Koran as well as he changed his name Zakariyya.

2. Impression.

  There are really long story about HeLa cell and Herietta. Especially I realized again science was not absolute but be always available to change.

  And the story of Henrietta's children made me sad. They had a really big pain in their breast. They lost their mom very early and bady. Also, Deborah was gained by her husband and her brother Joe who killed and went to jail. 

HW - #2 : p.34-66.

Post on your blog, a summary, an impression, and a question to the section you have read.

1. Summary.

   Gey brought the cell of Henrietta into the lab. And he and his assistants started to stare and research the cell in the lab. They didn’t expect anything like other cells but the cell of Henrietta was different as the others. They marked and called her cell as HeLa cell. After the first treatment for the tumor, she went to back her normal life.  Also she got pregnant, so she had to send her daughter away. However they didn’t tell Henrietta about truth that her cell was growing and examined in their lab.

   As time passed her pain has begun to be worse. She had to start the next treatment. The treatment was not hard but it was being to be tough and made her to be sterile because of radiation of the treatment. On the other hand Gey appeared on television to show devoted to his work  and explain the cell to people during she was getting the treatment but he did not mention that the cell was from Henrietta.

   She had to go to hospital every single day. And she told her doctor the cancer was about to spread out but they didn’t pay attention to her. Eventually, she would not bear the pain anymore, so she went back to hospital and has stayed at the hospital. The suffering went to extremes. And doctors tried to in vain to ease her suffering but it didn't work. 

  And Laurelian, a microbiologist who was Gey's colleague at Hopkins, visited the hospital to see Henrietta and finally told her what happened to her cell. However she was glad to hear that even though they didn’t tell her about it before and she was in really severe pain because the cell could help and save countless people.

   And there was the immortal chicken heart cell that Carrel was growing up. People thought the cells were one of the important advances of the century and influential on the cultural field. However Carrel died, and the cells passed away together. And 5 years later, the HeLa cell began to grow up. So no one paid much attention to it at all.

   Eleven years after Rebecca learned about Henrietta in the biology class, she decided to write the book about her and she tried to contact Henrietta’s family. Finally thanks to a man who’d been one of Gey’s only African-American student. She could be in touch with DEBORAH who was only daughter of Henrietta left.

2. Impression.

   I was angry and my heart hurt seeing how Gey did to Henrietta. He did not tell anything when he collected her cells, and even he did not visit her and did not tell her anything. It is true that it is important to save many lives but it is also important to respect the right of a person. And he had many chanced to ask her and tell her about the truth even after collecting her cells. I really resent his being too rash.

   However, Henriatte was still kind and nice in spite of what Gey did to her. I was surprised at the response of Henriatta when she heard about her cell that was collected and growing. whatever i think, the certain thing is that she was really nice and kindhearted person.

3. A question to the section you have read.

- why did the nurse tell Day that visiting Henriatta made her getting mad and upset?

( p.66 I thought the reason she was crying and moaned an hour after Day and her children left was just she was sad because of the situation that she had loving family but she was sick and could not spend time with them.)

Free Writing On Reading. 10/19/2011

What is your process for reading in English? Tell the story of you as a reader. What is easy in English? What is difficult?
Do you have a dictionary? Where do you read? What other details can you provide?

Show us a picture in words.

As I read something in English, there are some easy or difficult things for me. Firstly, the easy thing to me is that actually I think it is easier to understand what they want to say in English because the way to express or say in English is more direct than my language. So, when I read something, I can understand what they want to say clearly and qucikly. On the other hand the difficult thing is that firstly the words. There are so many meanings per word. If I know the meaning of a word, there are another meanings that I don’t know. And I've learned ‘dsubject+verb+object’ is the form of a cluase but sometimes, there are some different sequence of the clause. I know when people want to emphasize something, they use change the sequence of the forms but it is hard to use and write for me. I guess it takes long time untill i can use the phrase.

And usually i read something in English on the train, bus, the internet, book and i even can read English anywhere cause I live in the US using English as the main language. But for improving my English, I read books and articles on the New York Times' web site at home or library. As reading books or article I use my smart phone to find the meaning of the words that I do not know. Smart phone is helpful to study English. If i do not know a word, i can search it up on the dictionary app or the internet. I prefer using a internet wesite-especially Korean wesite,Naver,- because the dictionary on Navr has many example of the words that i want to know and they show many usages of the words. So I can check another usage of the words. And sometims they do not have some words like slang I use google and slang dictionary, or sometimes when i couldn't find the words on the internet or dictionary, i ask my American friends.
And i note the words on my note and sometimes i note soem sentences that i like. And rerely sometimes i memorize the phrase.
And sometimes i dont use dictionary when i don't want to use dictionary because if i read a book then sometims i don't want to stop reading only for the word that i do not know and i just want to keep reading even if i have some words that i dont, then i just skip over the words. Actually although i did not know that word, it is not the big problem to understand the story.

And reading books i realize there are some other great way to say it like it on the book. I want to write something and express something like it in English but i forget almost everything after reading it. So not forgetting it, i sometimes memorize the phrase. However the sad thing is that even if i memorize it, i again forget the phrase because i think i dont use the phrase and remind it after memorizing.

And I am not sure about this, but i feel like it is easier to forget the story after reading a book that i read in English than my language.

I like reading books. However, now i prefer to read books in my language than books in English.

HW - #1 : p.1-33.

Post on your blog, a summary, an impression, and a question to the section you have read.

1. Summary.

    Rebecca Skloot, the author of the book ‘ The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks’  has begun to be interested in HeLa cell and  all about the story when she was sixteen and  took biology class.  She had many questions about the cell and the original owner of the cell. However she couldn’t get any answer anywhere. As she was in graduated school, she decided to write a book about both the cells, the woman who the cell came from and her family. And she found Henrietta's daughter and finally she could hear all of behind story.

   Henrietta's mom died when she was so young so her father sent her to her grandfather. So she was growing up with her grandfather's grandchildren. They worked on the tobacco farm so hard. So they could not finish their school but henrietta only stayed until sixth grade. Even the work was really tough, sometimes they had enjoyable time together like swim after the hard work. And when she was twenty she got married a boy called Day who shared room with her.

   One day, she has felt like something awful was in her womb but she did not go to see a doctor because she was afraid a doctor would not let her make her having children and take her womb. However as time passed she realized something was wrong to her womb. However she could not go to any hospitals because there were racial discrimination and she was black.  Finally she went to Hospital and the doctor diagnosed her case as cervical cancer. And she got treatment. While her operation, the doctor collected samples of tissues : one from her tumor and one from the healthy cervical tissue, even they did not ask her. However, no one knew the cells would not die unlike all the others.

2. Impression.

    First of all, I was impreesed by how strong she was. She grew up in poor surroundings and spent really hard time. However, she has never complained of her circumstance and the environment. Aditionally she worked so hard and did her best even though she had child.

    Also, I was angry about the discrimication. There was a racial discicrimination at that time. The colored people could not have same opportunities with the white people. They could not to go to any hospitals even if it was real emergency or not. At that time, if the colored people have severe health problem, they could be die or could be in worsen stituation.  Also, if they can go to a hospital, they were seperated with white people. I have known that there was a discrimination but I did not know the discrmination was severe like that much. I learned how severe the discrimination was and how unfair was at that time more exactly. It made me getting mad and almost crying.

3. Question to the section that i've read.

   - Why did not the doctor ask her collecting her tissues?
   - what did the colored people make do nothing against the discrimination?