If you went to high school any time in the last 30 or 40 years, you probably learned about the three kingdoms of life: animal, vegetable, and fungi. In this week's Science Out of the Box, science ...

Fungi exist throughout the environment. Some of them are useful, for example as food or as the basis of medication. Others are less desirable, such as mold on food, or spores that cause diseases.

Fungi possess the biochemical and ecological capacity to degrade environmental organic chemicals and to decrease the risk associated with metals, metalloids and radionuclides, either by chemical ...