Some like it hot, but not fungi

Chiliheads who savor the kick of hot peppers are sampling one of the earliest examples of chemical warfare. In this case, it's a battle between the peppers and a type of microbial fungus that destroys their seeds, researchers report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They studied wild peppers growing in Bolivia.

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The cool science video you are about to see below is not a science fiction at all. It shows how a fungi genus known as Cordyceps invade the body of ants cunningly slowly to spread amongst the whole insect society.

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A team of researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park has developed a new model system to study fungal infections.

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After being stored at Cornell University in New York State for nearly 70 years, part of a rare collection of more than 2,000 species of Chinese fungi will soon be on its way back to its native land.

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The effectiveness of voriconazole in combating fungal infections has been confirmed by a new study to be featured in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, published by Elsevier.

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During the rainy season in some regions of Japan, are beginning to populated forests of small lights in the trunks of trees and into the moist soil fungi grow hundreds of bioluminescence, which through a chemical reaction produced by an enzyme, emit a light that shines on a green …

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Mycologists are a rare breed, and scientists worry the UK will miss out lucrative fungus-based discoveries. Like what? Mushroom risotto. And umbrellas for fairies. Obviously fry-ups, which go without saying. But apart from these, what have fungi ever given us?

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Dutch Health Minister Ab Klink has decided to implement a total ban on hallucinogenic mushrooms, known as magic mushrooms.

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A Swiss researcher said Thursday he had hit on an unlikely way of recreating the unique sound of a Stradivarius violin -- by treating the wood of a replica instrument with mushrooms.

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The American Academy of Otolaryngology points out that it helps clean the ear and can fight bacteria and fungi. Some say it can even fight acne.

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In this study, we have used ultra-high-speed video cameras running at maximum frame rates of 250,000 fps to analyze the entire launch process in four species of fungi that grow on the dung of herbivores.

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Wild chilli plants produce spicy chemicals in their fruit in order to deter fungal invaders, US researchers have shown.

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TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO, on 26 April 1986, reactor No 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Ukraine, blew apart, spewing radioactive dust and debris far and wide.

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Despite their reputation for attacks on humans and pets, alligators are wiggling their way toward a new role as potential lifesavers in medicine.

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Fungi could eat dangerous radiation to survive, an unexpected finding that could one day help feed astronauts in space — at least those willing to eat a crawling fungus.

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The SF Chronicle reports:

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Fungi don't exactly come in boy and girl varieties, but they do have sex differences.

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Taylor Lockwood never paid much attention to mushrooms. But when he moved from Los Angeles to the redwood-carpeted northern California community of Mendocino during the warm, wet winter of 1984, he found himself surrounded by them.

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By analyzing dust samples originally collected by naturalist Charles Darwin, researchers have determined that bacteria and tiny fungi originating in the western Sahara desert are also found as far away as North America and the Caribbean.

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The find is unusual. Ground-dwelling organisms such as this fungus are much less likely to get trapped in sticky tree resin than are insects that alight on tree trunks.

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A"life list" is a list of things to do before you die. A food life list: food experiences you've always wanted, before it's too late.

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First, researchers grew enough fungus to give dandruff to 10 million people. Next, they sequenced its genes. Then they found out that not only does an icky fungus live on your head and cause dandruff — but it could be having sex. On your head. Right now.

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Most of the cells in your body are not your own, nor are they even human. They are bacterial.

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Here's a possible solution to both the energy crisis and what to do with highly radioactive waste from nuclear reactors: use the radiation as food.

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Dark-colored fungi devour radiation and convert it to fuel, researchers said on Tuesday in a study that may offer applications from more efficient solar cells to feeding astronauts in space.

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Why not? He's a fun guy. Microbiologist Arturo Casadevall of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City recalls learning several years ago that single-cell fungi had been found thriving inside the collapsed nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine.

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