The fungal way to fly

Dangerous fungal spores can survive stratospheric travel, Swiss scientists have found—which may explain how devastating fungal diseases such as myrtle rust skip between continents. The stratosphere begins higher than commercial planes fly; it includes the ozone layer and wraps the planet like a blanket. To find fungal spores way up there, the scientists built sampling devices involving matchsticks and polystyrene boxes, and attached them to weather balloons built to pop 35 kilometres above the surface of the Earth. Despite their stint on the edge of space, some of the spores were still able to be cultured.