Instant Genius is a bite-sized masterclass in podcast form. And in this episode, we're talking about the strange science of fungal infections.

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

For anyone who has been watching HBO’s fungal zombie TV series The Last of Us 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?

We speak to Dr Rebecca Drummond, 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.

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Authors

Jason Goodyer
Jason GoodyerCommissioning editor, BBC Science Focus

Jason is the commissioning editor for BBC Science Focus. He holds an MSc in physics and was named Section Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2019. He has been reporting on science and technology for more than a decade. During this time, he's walked the tunnels of the Large Hadron Collider, watched Stephen Hawking deliver his Reith Lecture on Black Holes and reported on everything from simulation universes to dancing cockatoos. He looks after the magazine’s and website’s news sections and makes regular appearances on the Instant Genius Podcast.

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