98.6 Trades Metabolic Cost for Fungal Protection

华氏98.6度促进新陈代谢，防止真菌感染

As a bitter winter storm rages on the east coast, it’s hard to knock being warm-blooded. But what about the metabolic cost of maintaining a high body temperature? Well, a new study finds that we and many other mammals keep up such a torrid temp because it’s a Goldilocks situation—98.6 is just right.

美国东海岸现在正是数九寒冬、风雪肆虐，对于温血动物而言这可真难熬。不过若想保持一个较高的体温，不知代谢值会怎样？一项新研究发现，我们和许多其他哺乳动物保持这样一个高热体温是因为华氏98.6度不多不少刚刚好。

Albert Einstein College of Medicine researchers previously showed that every one degree Celsius rise in body temperature wards off about 6 percent more fungal species. So tens of thousands of fungi can infect reptiles and amphibians, but we can only be invaded by a few hundred fungi.

阿尔伯特•爱因斯坦医学院的研究人员先前发现，体温每上升一摄氏度，可抵御真菌的数量就会增加6%左右。所以爬行动物和两栖动物会感染上数以万计的真菌，而我们只会被几百种真菌侵害。

In the new work, the researchers created a mathematical model that weighed the fungal protection benefits versus the metabolic cost of high body temperature. And the optimal temperature was 98.1, quite close to what evolution figured out. The research was published in the open-access journal mBio.

在新研究中，研究人员创建了一个数学模型来衡量抵御真菌的保护效益和高体温代谢值。最理想的温度为华氏98.1度，非常接近进化结果。这项研究结果发表在开放获取期刊《分子生物技术》（mBio）上。

Too low a temperature and we’re far more susceptible to fungal infections. Too high a temperature and we’d spend all our time taking in fuel to burn. So 98.6, like that middle bowl of porridge, is just right.

体温过低时，我们更易受到真菌感染。而体温过高时，我们会将时间全花在寻找食物以供新陈代谢上。因此，华氏98.6度，就像一碗麦片粥，恰到好处。

—Steve Mirsky