Bat Research Inspires Disciplines Far Beyond Biology
Thermal Bats Thermal infrared image of flying Brazilian free-tailed bats in Texas. Yellow is warmest; red is warm; green is cool and blue is coolest. Thomas Kunz, Boston UniversityBatdrones, swarming UAVs, and better radar are in our future Bat Con 2010 could have been a decidedly depressing science meeting, with days full of papers discussing bat deaths from white-nose syndrome, wind turbines and killings by superstitious people. But not everything was doom-and-gloom. The same researchers trying to protect bats from extinction are also working with the Air Force and Navy to design bat-inspired drones; they are using 3D thermal imaging to understand how bats fly in tight-knit groups; and they're using sophisticated weather radar to track bats, birds and insects as they migrate across the continent. Bat research is fruitful for many fields. In September, researchers at Boston University, the University of Maryland and other institutions won a five-year, $7.5 million grant...