Fungus

A healthy frog has been spotted with a mushroom growing out its side, the first time such a growth on live animal tissue has been seen. Not surprisingly, it stunned scientists (and had us wondering if this is how a real-life The Last of Us begins).

When it comes to cleaning up marine oil spills, it's best if you can use a material that separates the oil from the seawater. Scientists have created a new organic membrane which does exactly that, and it's derived from oyster mushrooms.

A study has found that playing a soundscape to a common, plant-promoting fungus found in soil caused it to grow more rapidly than fungi that weren’t exposed to sound. The novel ‘eco-acoustic’ approach has the potential to restore damaged ecosystems.

A fungus that attacked plants 407 million years ago has been unearthed among fossils at the Natural History Museum, making it the oldest of its kind to have ever been found. What's more, its new name celebrates one very famous fungi aficionado.

With nearly half the world's soil degraded, growing enough food to feed a global population is getting increasingly difficult and costly. Scientists believe they've got one solution, and it's already all around us: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.

Blueberries and other fruits are quite prone to fungi such as gray mold, whereas sunflowers are resistant to them. With that fact in mind, scientists have now used an extract from waste sunflower stems to keep such fruits from molding.

New research reveals the severity of COVID-19 may be linked to a fungal population living in our gut, and perhaps novel antifungal medicines can be developed to treat the disease.

It's one of the biggest and most treasured photography contests on the planet, and this year attracted a massive 49,957 entries. But there could be only a handful of winners. We present the standouts, offering a rare glimpse into the natural world.

Hospital patients often pick up dangerous, hard to treat infections. An experimental vaccine given on arrival to hospital could protect against a range of drug-resistant bacteria and fungi, by activating a different arm of the immune system.

The spotted-wing drosophila is a type of fruit fly that can destroy berry crops if not killed by insecticides. According to a new study, the smell of a crop-damaging fungus could provide an eco-friendly alternative to such toxic chemicals.

In the third BMC Ecology and Evolution image competition, a stunning snap of the invasive orange pore fungus (Favolaschia calocera) has not just encroached on native species’ territory but taken out the top spot in the annual contest.

While water lilies are perhaps most famous for starring in impressionist artist Claude Monet’s work, they may also have a molecular secret weapon that could help in our fight against deadly fungal infections, which are becoming increasingly worse.