Flying is More Complicated Than it Seems

Fruit flies may seem to be small, simple creatures, but they are most definitely not. I mean, their wings beat 250 times per second. It is surely not so simple when it comes to their flying abilities, either. At Cornell University, scientists have been studying how the flies recover when their flight is disturbed by something, such as a puff of wind. One of their conclusions is that their neurons are solving calculus problems, or at least what are calculus problems to us. At Cornell University, the scientists have developed an interesting way to study their flight. They glue small magnets to the flies and use a magnetic pulse to move them around as they're flying.

                                                                                                                                 






The system involves both high and low technology. On the high end, three video cameras record the flies' flight at 8,000 frames per second, and the researchers incorporate the information from the videos into a 3D reconstruction of the flies' flight that they can evaluate mathematically. Much was learned from this experiment. The nervous system of the fly receives information about how quick the angles of it's flight are changing and for how long that change has taken place. Once the information is processed, the fly must move it's wings to restore the initial position of flight. This happens so quickly, the brain cannot be involved. Instead, they sense change with two biological gyroscopes called halteres.  Humans use calculus to solve these kinds of problems involving angular momentum. Exactly what math the flies' neurons use is something the scientists at Cornell plan investigating further.

Nature of Science Themes

1. Role of motivation and curiosity.
2. Science is collaborative.
3. Science is based on evidence.

Link to article: Flies That Do Calculus With Their Wings