SAN LORENZO, Panama (AP) — The coronavirus upended the work of many Latin American scientists, who had to get creative to carry on with their research. The pandemic abruptly halted field work and sample collection and closed laboratories. To cope with those restrictions, researchers hauled samples and lab equipment or even entire ant colonies into their homes. One scientist who could not capture bats to bring to her lab instead mounted cameras that allowed her to spy on their sexual habits in the wild. The head of the Panama Environmental Ministry’s biodiversity department says scientists had almost “zero mobility” in the first half of 2020.
