Friday Fly Fun or How to swat one!

August 29th, 2008 categories: Friday Fun, Good stuff in Charlotte we find

On my way to grab some coffee today I heard this story on NPR radio about why its so darn hard to swat flies. (I hate flies, spiders and snakes BTW) How do they know the swatter is coming? How do they move so fast ? Do they think it through, or is it instinct? Well low and behold Michael Dickinson and Gwyneth Card have been working pretty hard to find the answers and what they found (Insect Flight, Michael Dickinson: Current Biology 8/28/08) is pretty darned interesting.

There is a good reason flies escape…they dance!  “They perform an elegant little ballet with their legs,” says Dickinson. “They move their legs around to reposition their bodies so that when they do jump, they will push themselves away from the looming threat.” Who knew? So there you have it, read Joe Palca’s NPR article here and watch the amazing stop action videos (click on the fly over there>)
…so next time you might just outwit that fly! Have a great Labor Day weekend!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 11:08 am and is filed under Friday Fun, Good stuff in Charlotte we find. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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