- Publisher: Popular Science
- Editor: Sarah Durn
- Published: October 4, 2025
From my What a Difference a Century Makes—or Not column on Pop Sci
100 years ago, this unlikely duo discovered the first cancer ‘germ.’
In 1925, The Lancet, one of the world’s most prestigious medical journals, published a blockbuster finding so significant that its editors offered a rare prelude: “The two communications which follow mark an event in the history of medicine. They form a detailed description of a prolonged and intensive research into the origin of malignant new growths, and they may present a solution of the central problem of cancer.”
On the day the studies were scheduled to be released, word began to spread beyond the scientific community. An electrified crowd gathered in a street outside the office of The Lancet...
How a hatter and railroad clerk kickstarted cancer research
Many thanks to Sarah Durn, Popular Science Associate Editor.
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