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Caltech and JPL scientists suggest the fingerprints of early photochemistry provide a solution to the long-standing mystery. Mars is blanketed by a thin, mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere—one that is far too thin to prevent large amounts of water on the surface of the planet from subliming or evaporating. But many researchers have suggested that the planet was once shrouded in an atmosphere many times thicker than Earth's. For decades that left the question, "Where did all the carbon go?" Now a team of scientists from Caltech and JPL thinks they have a possible answer. The researchers suggest that 3.8 billion...

In the shadows of the ongoing health challenges, a silent but deadly adversary is swiftly making its presence known across the United States: Candida auris. This rare and drug-resistant fungal infection, marked by a chilling 60% fatality rate, is sending shockwaves through the healthcare community due to its rapid spread and defiance against traditional antifungal treatments. Recent reports confirm its arrival in Washington State, underscoring the urgent need for proactive measures. With a death rate as high as 60%, Candida auris has become a formidable adversary in the realm of infectious diseases.

Dating back to the 19th century, scientists have known that bacteria and other microscopic organisms routinely live on or inside our bodies, usually without making us acutely sick. But it’s only in the past few decades that we’ve started to appreciate the importance of these microbial communities, or microbiomes, to our well-being and health. And it’s only more recently that we’ve begun to closely study the microbiomes found within cancers. Much of the early research into these cancer microbiomes has focused on bacteria. But while fungi are less abundant in the human body, they’re still thought to play a vital...

A giant fungus the size of a tyre has been found by villagers in China's Jianshui County. The large clump of mushrooms, which weighed more than 15 kilograms and measured nearly a metre in diameter, was proudly put on display by the finder. It is not known what type of fungus it is or whether the mushrooms are safe to eat.

Every summer without fail, I get the worst case of what the Missus and I call "Zombie Hoof", where my heels crack open till they bleed. It is painful enough that I hesitate to put on shoes and it is difficult to walk. I've been using this heel balm ("Flexitol") the Missus came up with at Walgreens and it works fairly well on the worst of the cracks, but after the fact and it takes a good three days till it stops hurting. The cream is made in Australia, and the label says the main ingredient is concentrated urea. (No,...

In his quest for world domination, James Bond's nemesis Ernst Blofeld threatens to unleash a pathogen that would destroy global food supplies. Humankind now faces such a foe. But this villain doesn't care about world domination, and it needs no evil genius to release it. The fungus known as wheat rust, one of history's most feared and destructive plant pathogens, is already sweeping the planet. Wheat rust can turn a healthy crop into a black, tangled mess of broken stems and shriveled grains just weeks before harvest. The battle between wheat and the fungus is an old one: Evidence suggests...

Lightning makes mushrooms more plentiful, according to ongoing research that offers a solid scientific basis for Japanese farming lore. For generations, Japanese farmers have welcomed storms over their fields based on the belief that lightning strikes provoke plentiful harvests of mushrooms, which are staples of Japanese cuisine. Currently, mushroom demand is so high that dealers are increasingly turning to foreign suppliers. Japan imports about 50,000 tons of mushrooms a year, mainly from China and South Korea. As part of a four-year study, scientists in northern Japan have been bombarding a variety of mushrooms in lab-based garden plots with artificially induced...

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'Humongous fungus' takes toll on fir forest Root rot - The world's largest organism is the size of 1,600 football fields Sunday, June 10, 2007RICHARD COCKLE PRAIRIE CITY -- Question: What does the world's largest living organism do all day? Answer: Pretty much whatever it wants. But very slowly. The U.S. Forest Service has adopted an informal live-and-let-live policy for the enormous tree killer it calls the "humongous fungus." The huge root-rot infestation underlies 2,200 acres east of Prairie City in a remote corner of eastern Oregon's Blue Mountains at an elevation of about 6,500 feet near the Strawberry Mountain...

The mystery emerged slowly, its clues maddeningly diverse. Sally Lester, an animal pathologist at a British Columbia laboratory, slipped a slide under her microscope -- a tissue from a dog on Vancouver Island. Her lens focused on a tiny cell that looked like a boiled egg. It was late 1999. She had started seeing a lot of those. On the eastern side of the island, several dead porpoises washed ashore early the next year. Scientist Craig Stephen, who runs a research center on the island, slit one open. He found its lungs seized by pneumonia and its other organs swollen...

Help! Almost two years ago, hubs began having an itchy rash. The only thing that calms it is taking steroids, not good. It's been a tossup whether it's a dermatological or an allergy problem. He's seen two dermatologists who've biopsied and found nothing. Also, full battery of allergy tests and is allergic to a lot, soy in particular. It's said that the rash is possibly a form of psoriasis that lasts 2-5 years. When it's full bore he scratches while asleep and wakes up bleeding. Any help would be appreciated...thank you...

Death toll from tropical fungus reaches four on Vancouver Island THE ASSOCIATED PRESS VICTORIA, British Columbia -- Four people, dozens of dogs and cats, 11 porpoises and a horse have died from a rare tropical fungus since it was detected on Vancouver Island in 1999, a study has concluded. The research by an international team that scientists from the University of British Columbia and British Columbia Center for Disease Control also concluded that 101 island residents and visitors have been infected by the rare cryptococcus gattii fungus. According to their report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of...