Bacteria go to extremes to handle hard times: They hunker down, building a fortress-like shell around their DNA and turning off all signs of life. And yet, when times improve, these dormant spores ...

Humans inhale somewhere between 1,000 and 10 billion mold spores on an average day—let alone on days after catastrophic flooding or a Category 5 hurricane hits, when fungal flare-ups can ensue.

A new study in Science reveals that bacterial spores can decide when to wake up by setting an electric alarm. Starvation, radiation, scorching heat, freezing cold, even the vacuum of space—none ...

The orange goo that took over the shore of a remote Alaskan village is actually a mass of fungal spores — not microscopic eggs, as scientists at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration ...

John Clements, Tulane University School of Medicine professor and chair of the school's Department of Microbiology and Immunology, said spores can stay in the environment for 100 years or more.

Turn Up the Heat: Bacterial Spores Can Take Temperatures in the Hundreds of Degrees New research makes panspermia—the spreading of life from one planet to another—more likely.