T-Rex: HeLa cells are a strain of cancer cells that, unlike regular body cells, can live indefinitely outside the body, grow very quickly, and don't die from old age. They are used in labs worldwide and are in many ways an independent organism!
T-Rex: They also helped in the research that eradicated polio!
T-Rex: So not only are HeLa cells the first observed example of devolution or speciation in human beings (going from a multi-celled life form to a single-celled one) but they're also maybe a first example of immortality: her cells live, but the woman from whom the cells were taken, Henrietta Lacks, died from this cancer in 1951. That's crazy!
T-Rex: Crazier: there's probably a greater mass of HeLa cells now than there was of Henrietta when she was alive!
Utahraptor: Yeah!
Utahraptor: The whole thing is so surreal, don't you think? The woman made a huge contribution to science just by getting sick. And imagine a new species EVOLVING from your body?
T-Rex: Well, Henrietta never found out. She was never even told that the cells were being cultivated!
T-Rex: And with that, I exhaust all my knowledge of Henrietta and HeLa cells. I am well and truly tapped.
Off panel: The cells are called "helacyton gartleri".
T-Rex: AW MAN!! I totally knew that one!
T-Rex: Also: learning is not a competition?
