When the doors to Ira Allen Chapel opened the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 11, a crowd gathered to claim the last of the nearly sold-out tickets at the Rebecca Skloot lecture, titled An Evening with Rebecca Skloot and “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” which was followed by a book signing in Billings Library. The administration had originally planned for her to speak at the University’s convocation ceremonies, which were cancelled due to Tropical Storm Irene, Honors College Dean Abu Rizvi said. Skloot was introduced by Provost Jane Knodell. Knodell described the plot of the book and explained how the University had chosen it for their incoming first-year summer reading program as well as the Honors College summer reading program. Skloot’s narrative nonfiction book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” is about an African American woman whose cells, which later became the building blocks for many of the modern medical and cancer treatments, were taken from her by Johns Hopkins University after she died of cervical cancer in 1951, Knodell said. Skloot spoke about how and when she decided to become a science writer. “At 16, I was sitting with a bored look on my face, in a community college lecture when my professor first mentioned Henrietta Lacks,” Skloot said. “I wanted to know