Latest Gary McCracken Stories

The deaths of insect-eating bats in North America could have serious economic impacts on the United States, costing the agriculture industry some as much as $53 billion a year, according to a new analysis by U.S. and South African researchers published in the journal Science.A fungal disease called white nose syndrome, combined with a growing number of wind turbines, which can ensnare the bats, have killed off more than one million bats in North America since 2006.The deaths eliminate a vital...

Bats in North America are under a two-pronged attack but they are not the only victim -- so is the US economyBats in North America are under a two-pronged attack but they are not the only victim "“ so is the U.S. economy. Gary McCracken, head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, analyzed the economic impact of the loss of bats in North America in agriculture and found it to be in the $3.7 to $53 billion a year range.McCracken's...

Researcher finds that cross-species transmission may have less to do with virus mutation and contact rates and more to do with host similarityHIV-AIDS. SARS. Ebola. Bird Flu. Swine Flu. Rabies. These are emerging infectious diseases where the viruses have jumped from one animal species into another and now infect humans. This is a phenomenon known as cross-species transmission (CST) and scientists are working to determine what drives it.Gary McCracken, a professor at the University of...