{"id":24339,"date":"2023-02-17T10:03:14","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T09:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=137431"},"modified":"2023-02-17T10:35:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T09:35:14","slug":"instant-genius-podcast-fungal-infections-with-dr-rebecca-drummond","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/instant-genius-podcast-fungal-infections-with-dr-rebecca-drummond\/","title":{"rendered":"Instant Genius Podcast: Fungal infections, with Dr Rebecca Drummond"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could a fungus ever really turn us all into mindless zombies? <\/p>

By Jason Goodyer\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 17 February 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Instant Genius<\/em> is a bite-sized masterclass in podcast form. And in this episode, we\u2019re talking about the strange science of fungal infections.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organisation recently released a report stating that fungal infections currently kill around 2 million people a year<\/a> and that they present a growing threat to human life.<\/p>\n

For anyone who has been watching HBO\u2019s fungal zombie TV series The Last of Us<\/em> this may be cause for alarm. But how big is the threat of fungal infections, how well-equipped are we to deal with them and could a fungus ever really turn us all into mindless zombies?<\/p>\n

We speak to Dr Rebecca Drummond<\/a>, Associate Professor of Immunology and Immunotherapy, at the University of Birmingham. She tells us about the fascinating lifecycles of fungi, the threats they pose to human life and why we should be doing more to protect ourselves from them.\n<\/p>\n<p>Find\u00a0<em>Instant Genius<\/em>\u00a0on your preferred podcast platform here:\u00a0<a href=\"\/\/instantgenius.podlink.to\/Podcast"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">instantgenius.podlink.to\/Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Listen to more episodes of Instant Genius:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/the-human-body\/instant-genius-podcast-how-to-get-more-time-in-your-day\/"\">How to get more time in your day, with Dr Ashley Whillans<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/news\/worlds-ageing-population\/"\">The world\u2019s ticking demographic time bomb, with Prof Jane Falkingham<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/the-human-body\/instant-genius-podcast-science-persuasion\/"\">The science of persuasion, with Prof Vanessa Bohns<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/space\/instant-genius-podcast-light-pollution\/"\">Light pollution, with Dr Greg Brown<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/the-human-body\/instant-genius-podcast-how-to-enhance-your-focus-with-sound-with-dr-nick-perham\/"\">How to enhance your focus with sound, with Dr Nick Perham<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/the-human-body\/instant-genius-podcast-the-electrome\/"\">The electrome, with Sally Adee<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Could a fungus ever really turn us all into mindless zombies? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24340,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/instant-genius-podcast-fungal-infections-with-dr-rebecca-drummond.jpg",940,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/instant-genius-podcast-fungal-infections-with-dr-rebecca-drummond-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/instant-genius-podcast-fungal-infections-with-dr-rebecca-drummond-300x128.jpg",300,128,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/instant-genius-podcast-fungal-infections-with-dr-rebecca-drummond-768x327.jpg",768,327,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/instant-genius-podcast-fungal-infections-with-dr-rebecca-drummond.jpg",800,340,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/instant-genius-podcast-fungal-infections-with-dr-rebecca-drummond.jpg",940,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/02\/instant-genius-podcast-fungal-infections-with-dr-rebecca-drummond.jpg",940,400,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Could a fungus ever really turn us all into mindless zombies?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/24339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}