How a Litter of One Eyed Sheep Born in 1953 Led to Effective Skin Cancer Treatment Decades Later

A fascinating TED-Ed lesson written by Tien Nguyen and animated by Anton Bogaty entitled “The Strange Case of the Cyclops Sheep” tells the story of how a litter of one-eyed goats born in 1953 eventually led to the development of effective skin cancer treatment almost 60 years later in 2012.

In the 1950s, a group of ranchers in Idaho were baffled when their sheep gave birth to lambs with only one eye. Mystified by these cyclops sheep, they called in scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate. What happened? Tien Nguyen describes how, decades later, one team of biologists stumbled upon the answer.