Hooke, Schleiden, Schwann, and the many others who painted the early portraits of cells would be astounded if they could see the state of cell biology today. Researchers now order cells from catalogs, charging them to grant numbers or credit cards. Cancer cells and blood cells are routinely fused to create a totally new cell type, the hybridoma. Thanks to genetic engineering, tobacco cells glow with a firefly's light, mice manufacture human antibodies, corn plants produce bacterial insecticide, and bacteria churn out human pharmaceuticals. In California, a man sues his doctor to recoup profits from cell lines derived from his cancerous spleen; throughout the world, laboratories abound with HeLa cells, descended from the cancerous cervix of a woman named Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1953, quite unaware that her cells would live on.
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