In 2009, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), in an uncharacteristic move, reached out beyond the expected cadre of researchers to ask other scientists for help in the war on cancer. The call went out not to cancer biologists or cancer researchers, but to theoretical physicist Paul Davies and astrobiologist Charley Lineweaver. With no prior knowledge of cancer and, most important, no preconceived notions, these two would usher in the next chapter in our understanding of cancer.
