music; ambience: researchers calling out numbers
For the past year, the population of New York state’s hibernating bats has been decimated by an unknown disease. Scientists are exploring New York’s caves and abandoned mines where the bats hibernate to collect samples and to try to find the cause. Welcome to Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries, a glimpse of the world of science from the inside. Marianne Moore is a PhD student at Boston University, in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Kunz.
“We were collecting a number of bats. We collect blood and tissue. And we’ll use the blood to try to see if there’s something about their immune system that’s making them more susceptible to a pathogen, if that’s what this turns out to be as the cause. We’re also doing body composition analysis to check if they’ve used up their reserves more quickly than they should in order to get through hibernation. I have about four to five different assays that I can use that will test different aspects of the immune system. An assay is an experiment. One of the assays, for example, that I use, is called a bacterial killing assay. And I can take E. coli and whole blood of the bat and I can mix them in very specific concentrations. And the question is maybe there’s something going on with these guys that might make them less able to kill the bacteria.”
[sound of researchers working]
Marianne Moore and her colleagues take their samples back to their lab, searching for whatever may be affecting the bats’ immune system.
For the latest information, check our web site, pulseplanet.com. Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries are made possible by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.