The asteroid that crashed into our planet about 66 million years ago and led to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs appears to have life-saving abilities as well.

The asteroid that crashed into our planet about 66 million years ago and led to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs appears to have life-saving abilities as well. 
Researchers in the U.K. and China have found that one of its metals, iridium, can kill cancer cells. 
According to a release from the University Of Warwick, it does so, "by filling them with deadly version of oxygen." 
The researchers developed an activated organic-iridium compound and used a laser to send it through the skin and all layers of a model lung cancer cell tumor. 
After determining it had killed the harmful cells, the team moved on to testing the treatment's impact on non-cancerous cells and found it did no damage to healthy tissue.
"This project is a leap forward in understanding how these new iridium-based anti-cancer compounds are attacking cancer cells, introducing different mechanisms of action, to get around the resistance issue and tackle cancer from a different angle," Cookson Chiu, one of the study's authors, commented.