Anna Sliger, age 12, of Strasburg, Pennsylvania, for her question:

Is it true that bats have poor eyesight?

When you stumble over a chair right under your nose, some smarty is likely to say that you are blind as a bat. Well, the furry little bat does not have the sharpest eyesight in the world. But he is far from blind. His sight is worse in the bright light of day. However, this is no handicap at all because he does most of his flying at night. And in the dim twilight, he can see just about as well as you can.

What's more, he has a remarkable gift that more than makes up for his rather poor eyes. His high, squeaky voice sends out signals that bounce back from nearby objects to his ears. .` He has his own built in radar system to guide him in flight. Experimenters have sealed his. little eyes and freed him to fly in a room hung with tangled ropes. His squeaks were pitched too high for human ears. But he heard their echoes from the ropes and swerved in time to avoid tangling himself in a traffic accident.