History

Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia, United States. Originally named Loretta Pleasant, she was raised by her grandfather after her mother died during childbirth in 1924. In her grandfather's home, Henrietta grew up alongside her cousin David. The two would go on to marry in 1941 and have five children together before Henrietta's untimely death in 1951 at just 31 years old. Her Cancer Before her fifth pregnancy, Henrietta felt what she described as a "knot" inside of her. Just months after the birth of her son, she was referred to Johns Hopkins Hospital where…

Incest has long been known to increase the likelihood of health issues in offspring that result from the practice. The increased risk of health complications is due to the fact that many diseases and conditions require two recessive versions of a gene in order to be expressed in an individual. The more closely related two people are, the more likely they are to be carriers of the same disease. This increases the likelihood that each will pass on a recessive version of the same gene to their offspring. Therefore, if the offspring is shared between two related individuals, that child…

Hemophilia is an inherited disorder that prevents the proper clotting of an individual's blood. The condition, known to lead to fatal bleeding both spontaneously and after injury, is due to a lack of clotting factors. These clotting factors, which are proteins that act to stop bleeding, come in many forms. However, low levels of two types, factor VIII and factor IX, cause different types of hemophilia. These are type A and type B respectively (type B is less severe).  The X Chromosome Hemophilia is caused by a genetic mutation on either the gene that codes for factor VIII or the…

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the molecule that stores our genetic information. It has a helical structure formed by two strands that each contain sequences of smaller molecules denoted by A's, T's, C's, and G's. This double-stranded helical structure was discovered in 1953 after years of experimentation by many individuals within the scientific community. The Foundation DNA was initially discovered by Friedrich Miescher who discovered the molecule in 1869. It was not until early in the 1940s that a team of scientists, led by Oswald Avery, posited that this mysterious molecule acted as our genetic material. Later in the decade, Erwin…

The famed author of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin, created what would serve as the foundation for the field of evolutionary biology. His main theory posited that both animals and humans had common ancestry and key differences were due to the pressures of natural selection. This idea, which we now know to be correct, shook Victorian society and permanently altered the biological sciences. However, he was not just the founder of a subfield of biology but the inspiration behind the theory of eugenics.  Half-Cousins  Darwin and the founder of eugenics, Sir Francis Galton, shared a grandfather, making the…

The term "Eugenics", meaning "wellborn", was coined by British statistician Sir Francis Galton to describe his theory that intelligence and other capabilities were inherited and people with desirable traits should, therefore, have more children. It was his opinion that this would increase the presence of these traits and lead to desirable outcomes for the human species.  Galton's Impact Galton's theory reached the United States in the 20th century and resulted in the spread of negative eugenics. A series of efforts were made to ensure that people with undesirable traits were prevented from reproducing. This was in order to keep "bad"…

Charles Darwin, the second son of a prominent physician, sailed away from England on the famous HMS Beagle in 1831. The young man, serving as the ship's naturalist, spent just 18 months of his five-year journey aboard as he was free to mostly do as he wished during the voyage. He spent much of his time analyzing plant and animal specimens that he found in various locations. Some of the most famous of these locations were the Galapagos Islands. There he is believed by many to have noticed that finch specimens from both the islands and the mainland were similar…

Gregor Mendel, born in the year 1822 in what is now the Czech Republic, showed great intellect as a young boy. So much so that a priest convinced his family to send him away to a grammar school where he finished his studies in 1840. Mendel then went on to study philosophy, physics, and mathematics in university and later become a monk in the Augustinian order. His position at his monastery allowed him to be sent to the University of Vienna to continue his study of physics and mathematics. While there, he also studied microscopy and plant anatomy and physiology.…