Washoe County Library System

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro...

The charismatic head of a medical research company that developed a promising cancer vaccine dies in a plane crash after looting the company of huge sums of money.

"The gripping story of a chemical weapons catastrophe, its cover-up, and how one army doctor's discovery led to the development of chemotherapy. On the night of December 2, 1943, the Luftwaffe bombed a critical Allied port in Bari, Italy, sinking seventeen ships and killing over a thousand servicemen and hundreds of civilians. Caught in the surprise air raid was the John Harvey, an American Liberty ship carrying a top-secret cargo of 2,000 mustard...

When Eric Wendel was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 1966, the survival rate was 10 percent. Today, it is 90 percent. Even as politicians call for a "Cancer Moonshot," this accomplishment remains a pinnacle in cancer research. The authors daughter, then a medical student at Georgetown Medical School, told her father about this amazing success story. Tim Wendel soon discovered that many of the doctors at the forefront of this effort...

"On September 12, 2004, just two and a half days before Johnny Ramone's death, a group of musicians and friends staged a benefit concert in Los Angeles to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Ramones' first performance and raise money for cancer research. That unforgettable night - along with Johnny's subsequent memorial service - is captured in this combination concert film and Johnny Ramone tribute documentary featuring interviews with and performances...

"Anyone who has seen a child recover from a wound or a broken bone knows that kids are made to heal. Their bodies are more resilient, more adaptive, and far more able to withstand acute stress than adults’. In this inspiring memoir, Dr. Kurt Newman draws from his long experience as a pediatric surgeon working at one of our nation's top children's hospitals to make the case that children are more than miniature adults. Through the story of his own...

"The Nobel laureate Otto Warburg—a cousin of the famous finance Warburgs—was widely regarded in his day as one of the most important biochemists of the twentieth century, a man whose research was integral to humanity’s understanding of cancer. He was also among the most despised figures in Nazi Germany. As a Jewish homosexual living openly with his male partner, Warburg represented all that the Third Reich abhorred. Yet Hitler and his top advisors...

Photographer Chris Jackson has been by the Royal family's side on domestic visits and overseas tours for the past fifteen years, resulting in an unparalleled photographic archive of the evolving British Royal family. Occupying a front-row seat to history, Jackson's assignments have taken him to the four corners of the Earth to document the extraordinary breadth and devotion of the Royals to causes such as cancer research, mental health, and HIV awareness...

"The definitive history of the work being carried out by Michael Milken and the Milken Institute to accelerate medical breakthroughs and lead humanity into the 21st century of medicine, providing an inspirational and hopeful road map for the future of thefield"-- "Partly a memoir and partly a recent history of medicine, the definitive account of Michael Milken’s lifetime work to accelerate medicine's evolution from a dark past to a bright...