In the 1970s, soft-shell clams started mysteriously dying off in Maine and the Chesapeake Bay. Years later, scientists identified the culprit: a bizarre form of cancer that spread like an epidemic. When people get cancer, it typically arises when some of their own cells gain mutations and multiply out of control. But the clams were being invaded by free-floating cells that came from other clams. The alien cancer cell multiplied inside its new victim, and then some of its descendant cells escaped
In the 1970s, soft-shell clams started mysteriously dying off in Maine and the Chesapeake Bay. Years later, scientists identified the culprit: a bizarre form of cancer that spread like an epidemic. When people get cancer, it typically arises when some of their own cells gain mutations and multiply out of control. But the clams were being invaded by free-floating cells that came from other clams. The alien cancer cell multiplied inside its new victim, and then some of its descendant cells escaped