Most fungal pathogens can't survive the heat of our bodies

Fungi make people sick when they invade and survive in otherwise healthy human tissue

We breathe in airborne spores frequently, but they often don't make us sick. This video details how certain concerning fungal changes can occur and discusses the role of mycologists—scientists who study fungi—in helping to improve human health.

Cold-blooded reptiles seek heat, and that behavior may help combat fungal infections

This Radiolab podcast episode takes on the idea that though our human bodies are too warm for the majority of fungal species to effectively replicate inside our bodies, that's not the case for reptiles. Yet when those species warm their bodies by basking in the sun on rocks, they can soak up heat and may also help keep fungal infections in check.

19 fungal pathogens are of key concern to world health officials

In 2022, this global health body issued its first-ever list of top fungal threats to human health. It said fungal threats are spreading and occurring more frequently. The WHO’s list included 19 fungal pathogens to watch, and said that the most dangerous ones to public health are Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida albicans, and Candida auris. There are only a handful of classes of medication currently available to combat fungal pathogens, with few others in the pipeline even though antimicrobial resistance is growing.

Fevers are an immune response to create hurdles for pathogens

Substances called pyrogens prompt the brain to raise the body temperature to levels where bacteria and viruses struggle to survive. The higher temps also support immune cells fighting off the invaders.

Schizophrenia increases heat death risks in several complex ways

Evidence shows that people with schizophrenia have an inherently harder time regulating internal body temperatures. They may also struggle to find safe shelter during extreme heat, and their prescribed antipsychotic medications often have dehydrating effects, collectively elevating the risk of heat-related illness and death, as illustrated by this article that focuses on the final days of Stephan Goodwin's life in 2022. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

Extreme temperature resilience appears to be temporary for tardigrades

Although often considered indestructible, scientists observed these creatures could endure temperatures near 150°C for only a few minutes in their tun state. Outside this state, only half the samples in a Danish study survived 37.1 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit) for 24 hours, making tardigrades extremotolerant rather than extremophiles.

Climate shifts are projected to cause more cases of food poisoning

Research published in 2024 suggests that with more severe heatwaves and natural disasters, scientists expect there to be a rise in foodborne disease, especially in Africa and Asia. Already, there are an estimated 600 million food poisoning cases and 420,000 deaths annually. Diarrhea is the most common cause of those deaths.

How the gut microbiome can affect heatstroke risk

Some research suggests that our gut microbiome influences our risk of exertional heatstroke. If exercise boosts our body temperatures to unsafe levels, increasing gut permeability, that can cause a "leaky" gut—allowing bacteria and other gut microbes to leak into the bloodstream and potentially trigger endotoxemia, a potentially life-threatening inflammatory response that can occur with heat exhaustion and heatstroke.

Climate change creates conditions for more invasive species

Increasing temperatures shift the conditions native organisms are accustomed to, allowing those from warmer climates to move in with a greater chance of survival. Drought stress can cause invasive plants to absorb less herbicide, limiting the effectiveness of the control method, while melting ice can open new Arctic shipping routes, expanding the transport of species.

Extreme heat is neurologically impairing animals

Dog bites increase in summer, birds struggle to learn, and goats pick more fights. Scientists are unraveling new details about how heat impairs animals' neurological systems.

How greenhouse gases and climate change impact the efficiency of photosynthesis

A review in the Journal of Experimental Botany found that higher temperatures reduce the efficiency of enzymes involved in photosynthesis and impair a plant's ability to control water loss and regulate carbon dioxide uptake. While increased carbon dioxide levels are understood to accelerate plant growth by boosting photosynthesis, researchers suggest these effects more than offset the potential gain.

Billion-year-old Arctic fossils suggest Earth had fungi far earlier than previously thought

Named Ourasphaira giraldae, this new species of fungus, reported in 2019, was found in the Grassy Bay Formation in the Canadian Arctic. It pushed the fossil record of fungi back by about half a billion years since the oldest previously recognized fungi fossils came from the Rhynie chert, a Scottish site that dates back roughly 400 million years. This fungal discovery also suggests that fungi may have occurred on land much earlier than plants, raising questions about what ancient fungi used for nourishment.

Mold growth in space raises the hypothesis of life being brought to Earth

Panspermia suggests that life could be carried throughout the cosmos by asteroids, comets, and other objects, but it requires organisms that can withstand the extreme cold of space travel, stellar radiation, lack of water, and intense heat of planetary impacts. The discovery of mold on the International Space Station and experiments showing it can withstand radiation in outer space-like conditions increase the plausibility of the hypothesis.

HFMD can survive on surfaces for days at a time

That's why the virus can be transmitted via fomites—surfaces that have virus on them like doorknobs, kids toys, etc. These viruses are resilient—they are often even resistant to freezing (and are frequently stored at freezing temperatures in lab settings).

Poison ivy will likely become both larger and more resilient due to climate change.

Health workers may cool body temperatures with convection cooling

That's spraying a patient with water and putting fans over them. Cooling the body by removing clothing and placing cold water and ice packs—and not blocking evaporation—are essential cooling steps.

Women typically have more robust immune responses than men

This difference helps women better combat infectious diseases, but this more turbo-charged response may also make women more vulnerable to autoimmune diseases by potentially priming their immune systems to overreact to their own cells and tissues and label them as invaders that must be destroyed. Roughly 80% of American women have autoimmune conditions.

Over time, people develop a resistance to spicy foods

TRPV1 is a receptor in the body that detects potentially harmful things and responds in a variety of ways, including sweating, tearing up or a runny nose. Over time, more exposure to spicy foods can build up a resistance that minimizes these reactions.

Sweat doesn't smell, but bacteria multiply in moist environments—and cause an odor

Body odor is associated with sweat, but odor actually arises from the bacteria that multiply in moist environments on your skin. Hormones, medications, food, and body hair can all affect body odor.

Feels-like temperature indicates how our skin will feel

When the wind is moving faster, we tend to feel colder due to the so-called "wind chill," which cools our bodies by moving heat away from them and making water evaporate faster. On the other hand, high levels of humidity can make us feel 10 degrees warmer at times.

City structures cause localized heat zones hotter than nearby rural areas

Urban materials like asphalt and concrete trap heat, while cities lack cooling features like trees and water. Due to hot runoff, urban streams can heat up by as much as 18°F more than forested streams.

Why does the body have a stress response?

When encountering a stressful situation, the human body typically goes into what is known as "fight-or-flight" mode. Because it evolved as a survival mechanism, the biochemical response enables people and other mammals to react quickly to life-threatening situations. The carefully orchestrated yet near-instantaneous sequence of hormonal changes and physiological responses helps someone to fight the threat off or flee to safety.

Three examples of how humans are still evolving

For much of nature, natural selection and "survival of the fittest" still play a dominant role; only the strongest can survive in the wild. As little as a few hundred years ago, the same was true for humans, but what about now?

Why Earth will be made uninhabitable by the sun far sooner than when the sun dies

The star has enough fuel to continue fusing hydrogen into helium for another 5 billion years, but the gradual increase in core temperature from these reactions will brighten the sun by 10% every billion years. Some models predict that the increased radiation will be enough to vaporize all of Earth's surface water about 1 billion years from now, long before the sun becomes a red giant and disintegrates the planet.

Two invasive termite species are threatening Florida homes

Asian subterranean and Formosan subterranean termites have been found in northern and coastal counties, respectively. About half of all structures in the urban South Florida metropolitan area could be at risk of infestation by one or both species by 2040.

Artificial lightning can improve the yield of shiitake mushroom growers

Researchers have found that shockwaves produced from lightning strikes homogenously break internal filaments called hyphae, transitioning the mushrooms from a vegetative growth to a fruiting phase. Repeated minor shocks near mushroom logs mimicked this effect.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

Watch what the Ebola virus does inside our cells and organs in order to spread and survive.

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.