Supplies of a Rare Cancer-Killing Compound Were Dwindling...Not Anymore

Bugula neritina is a rather inconspicuous marine organism. It looks like purplish seaweed, but it's actually a branching colony of individual, tentacled zooids (the technical term for individuals in a colonial invertebrate) that resemble badminton shuttlecocks. It's abundant, invasive and widely viewed as a pest as it accumulates on ships, dock sides, buoys and intake valves. It might also contain a cure to some of humanity's most devastating diseases: cancer, HIV, Alzheimer's. That's