New Delhi: For generations, people have argued about what a fever truly means for the body. Ancient physicians such as Hippocrates believed rising temperature was nature’s way of purging illness, while doctors in later centuries feared fever itself was the enemy. Today, science is far more nuanced: a fever is recognized as a built-in part of the immune response, yet the exact reason it helps us recover is still not completely understood.

Sam Wilson, a microbiologist at the University of Cambridge, has been interested in this puzzle for years. He explains that although many of us grow up hearing that warmth “kills germs,” researchers still have a lot to learn about how temperature changes influence viruses at a molecular level. Two possibilities dominate current thinking. One is that the

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