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In the 1950s, Idaho sheep ranchers had a problem. About a quarter of their lambs were being born dead or deformed-sometimes with a single eye centered in the middle of their forehead, like the Cyclops of Greek legend, or missing their upper jaw. There were times when the pregnant ewes couldn't give birth at all, carrying the mutated fetuses until they were surgically delivered or the ewes themselves died. Unbeknownst to the farmers, the cause was a poisonous plant, western false hellebore (Veratrum californicum). Eventually, the plant would inspire a successful cancer therapy-but at the time, the sheep were what mattered.