Before the early 1950s, scientists could not do something they all take for granted now - keep human cells growing in the lab.

But as Henrietta Lacks lay dying from metastasized cancer, doctors took a cell sample of her tumor...and the cells never stopped growing. Cultures from her cells, called the HeLa cells, have been growing for nearly sixty years. They have been used for to help develop the polio vaccine in the '50s, in vitro fertilization in the '70s and gene mapping in the '90s.

Henrietta Lacks' contribution to science has been chronicled by Rebecca Skloot in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is available in the ATH store.