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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky. Got a minute?

As a bitter winter storm rages on the east coast, it's hard to knock being warm-blooded. But what about the metabolic¹ 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.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine researchers previously² showed that every one degree Celsius³ rise in body temperature wards⁴ off about 6 percent more fungal species. So tens of thousands of fungi⁵ can infect reptiles⁶ and amphibians⁷, but we can only be invaded by a few hundred fungi.

In the new work, the researchers created a mathematical model that weighed the fungal protection benefits versus⁸ the metabolic cost of high body-temperature. And the optimal⁹ temperature was 98.1, quite close to what evolution figured out. The research was published in the open-access journal mBio.

Too low a temperature and we're far more susceptible¹⁰ 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.

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I'm Steve Mirsky.