Bats, Microbiomes, and the Science We Still Don’t Know

Science has holes and that’s the point. In this episode we dig into bats, the gut microbiome, immune defenses, inflammatory bowel disease, and why curiosity beats certainty. I sat down with Dr. Holly Lutz and Dr. Ian Cartwright to connect museum science to human health.

Holly walks through how bat biology forces better questions, from streamlined intestines to what “normal” even looks like across species. Ian brings the translational angle, explaining how inflammation and the microbiome shape disease outcomes in humans, and why our models can miss what nature already solved.

We talk about what museums really are (a library of life), how fieldwork changes the way you think, why collaboration matters, and the best advice they’ve gotten: science is a marathon, not a race.

Watch the full episode below.