image: Armed with plastic bags, toothbrushes and five fluorescent colors of harmless powder, University of Utah researchers gave deer mice colorful fur before freeing them to spend the night fighting and-or mating with other deer mice. The colored mice -- like the one shown here getting powdered blue -- transferred some of their colored powder onto their fighting and mating buddies, allowing researchers to determine that bigger, older mice are most likely to contact other mice, and thus most likely to transmit deadly hantavirus. view more
Credit: Denise Dearing, University of Utah