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A patchwork of genomic differences in the placenta may explain the organ’s “live fast, die young” strategy and its connections to cancer.
James P. Allison believed that unleashing the immune system was a way to beat cancer when almost no one else did. A Nobel Prize and a growing list of cancer survivors vindicate him.
Researchers agree it’s a long shot, but transmissible cancers could theoretically evolve into independent species. Certain weird parasites might be living proof.
An unlikely team offers a controversial hypothesis about what enabled animal life to get more complex during the Cambrian explosion.
The long, variable times that some diseases incubate after infection defies simple explanation. An idealized model of tumor growth offers a statistical solution.
Elephants did not evolve to become huge animals until after they turned a bit of genetic junk into a unique defense against inevitable tumors.
The subtle mechanics of densely packed cells may help explain why some cancerous tumors stay put while others break off and spread through the body.
Analyzing individual cancer cells could reveal the answer to some of the disease’s most enduring mysteries.
Population expansion may be a major driver in the evolution of cooperation, with implications for new antibiotics, cancer treatments and perhaps even human behavior.