Fierce as they are, Tasmanian devils can't beat a contagious cancer that threatens to wipe them out. Now scientists think they've found the disease's origin, a step in the race to save Australia's snarling marsupial. ...more

January 1, 2010

It may not be the most attractive or appealing definition, but in its strictest scientific sense, life is a common, sexually transmitted, medical condition with 100 percent mortality. At the time we are conceived, we are all programmed to die. Human life is being transmitted through "genes" the same way, since its creation. How well and how long each one of us lives is essentially decided by the genes, if we let nature take its course. ...more

January 11, 2009

For the first time, researchers have decoded all the genes of a person with cancer and found a set of mutations that may have caused the disease or aided its progression. ...more

November 6, 2008

Researchers say they have discovered a major reason why women who inherit a mutated version of the gene BRCA1 run a high risk of breast cancer - and that finding might aid the search for new treatments. ...more

December 10, 2007