Science News

Els van der Heijden, who has cystic fibrosis, was finding it ever harder to breathe as her lungs filled with thick, sticky mucus. Despite taking more than a dozen pills and inhalers a day, the 53-year-old had to stop working and scale back doing the thing she loved best, horseback riding.

Cancer patients often wonder “why me?” Does their tumor run in the family? Did they try hard enough to avoid risks like smoking, too much sun or a bad diet? New research suggests random chance may play a bigger role than people realize.