15 May

The history of all life on Earth is likely the history of microbes. The animals and plants and fungi etc. we see as living things are likely just created by microbes and act as temporary homes for them. It’s why we and animals and plants get sick from microbes, that’s just microbes continuing to create new life forms. Bats might have achieved something unique. It now seems that the number of microbes they carry, which can be lethal to other species like us, don’t affect them much at all - they may have become one of the first species to find a way to live in a dynamic equilibrium with such a large number of microbes. All species do that, but bats may be the masters. It’s not actually in microbes’ best interest to kill you, they lose a home, but getting the balance right is tricky. Bats might have cracked it better than anything else.