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SciShow 8 Jul 2026 35 here now

King Tut’s Curse Could Cure Cancer

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Many mysterious deaths are associated with the tomb of King Tut.

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idk who cares. but i wanna say that with my adhd, you always having mostly accurate subtitles is a massive help. its wild to me in 2026 how rare it is to find channels that give a damn to put the effort in,... relying on shitty ai
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@Crossark1 From YouTube ↗ 10 Jul 2026 68
This would make for a great House episode. Patient with previous history of leukemia has spontaneous, seemingly miraculous recovery, going on a press circuit tour only to suddenly develop trouble breathing and collapses. The team eventually works out that the patient developed aspergillosis from environmental factors (maybe their job?) and it's keeping their cancer at bay, but there's a risk of relapse if they treat the aspergillosis that's currently killing them.
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It's nice to hear scientific advances and good news.
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@MyBigRed From YouTube ↗ 9 Jul 2026 45
A group of people excavated the tomb of King Tut, and within 100 years, ALL of them died. Coincidence? I think not.
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@Sthuont From YouTube ↗ 9 Jul 2026 34
Lord Carnarvon also lived in Highclere Castle a.k.a. Downton Abbey
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Chemhotep
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Aspergillosis killed my brother in law. He had leukaemia that was cured but aspergillosis got him while he was immuno compromised.
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Glad to see more of Reid lately. No shade on the others though. All of you are great.
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1:56 I heard that everyone involved in the project eventually died! Crazy effective curse!
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I can't find it now, but I could swear I'd read an analysis years ago which concluded that even Aspergillus is "wrong" because it presupposes that the cohort suffered an early demise. My memory of the paper was that, when controlled for actuarial data of the time and the given risk factors (like Carnarvon's car accident over a decade before), the expedition members' lifespans and causes of death were all statistically indistinguishable from the general population's. Essentially, the entire foundational premise that they died in measurably different ways or at a different range of ages compared to the general population is simply incorrect to begin with, and we need not look for ANY "causative" agent like Aspergillus because - turns out - there's no "effect" needing explanation.
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Let it RiPP!

no, wait, we're talking pharaohs..

It's time to d-d-d-d-d-defeat cancer!
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0:45 and we're sending samples of this fungus to all our rocks box subscribers!
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@fgllopp From YouTube ↗ 9 Jul 2026 68
At least it wasn't Super calafragalistic Aspergilliosis
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We keep finding new and incredible things fungi can do seemingly every other week. I might not be into mycology, but I can't deny some of what they find is really, really cool.
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@oldsarj From YouTube ↗ 9 Jul 2026 389
Aspergillosis is a falconer's worst nightmare. Your bird is healthy in the evening and dead by morning. Ghastly.
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I almost died because of aspergillosis. Thank god for my pulmonologist and no thanks to my insurance (BCBS) who tried to prevent me from getting my medication.
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so, what I'm getting from this is to not open tombs unless you're wearing a hazmat suit
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So the curse was just science with better marketing
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The fact the molecules potentially behind King tut's "curse" are called RIPS is very funny 😅
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Turning a spooky legend into a story about a real toxin, then a promising molecule, is a satisfying arc, and the careful hedging along the way makes it land better.