April 23, Friday, 4 p.m. -- Author and journalist Rebecca Skloot will talk about her bestselling new book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," and the history and ethics of research on human biological materials. Her talk, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the ARC Ballroom on the UC Davis campus and will be followed by a book signing. Henrietta Lacks, a poor Southern tobacco farmer, died more than 50 years ago, but cells taken from her body became the HeLa cell line, launching a multimillion dollar industry. Lacks' family was not aware of her "immortalization" until 20 years after her death, and saw no profits from the medical advances that came from the HeLa cell line. Skloot's visit to campus is sponsored by the UC Davis Genome Center, the Science and Technology Studies Program, the University Writing Program, and the Davis Humanities Institute.