Benjamin Dubansky, Brooke Dubansky, Brandon Ballengée, and Christopher Just, in collaboration with Le Bleu Perdu Project, "Fresh Sea," from the series Né dans le peche (Born in Sin), 2024. Digitized image from a histology slide of American alligator osteoderm, stained with a modified version of Ramón y Cajal’s picroindigo-carmine and Kernechtrot Nuclear Fast Red. Courtesy of the artists, Le Bleu Perdu Project, Atelier de la Nature.

Give Bats a Break

April 13, 2017

 

4/12/17 – CNN recently highlighted a team of researchers studying a cave-full of bats because, the story asserted, “Each bat has the potential to carry…some of the planet’s deadliest, but least understood, viruses…that could come to humans.” But a leading bat expert explains in Issues that focusing on potential diseases from bats is unlikely to contribute substantially to human health and may actually threaten the future of these flying mammals that are vital to the environment and the public’s general welfare.