Nerdy Science Blog

It requires high speed without exerting the aura of killing to kill a fly.

Professor Michael Dickinson and graduate student Gwyneth Card found the answer to how flies evade most of the swats.  When flies sense threat (and don’t forget their eyes can have 360-degree field of view), its tiny little brain will calculate and comes up with an escape plan immediately.  After coming up with a plan, it will changes its limps positions and fly away at fastest speed.  The whole process only takes about 100 milliseconds.

This study reminds me of a Japanese superhero television series, Kamen Rider BLACK (a.k.a. Masked Rider BLACK).  I am impressed with how the scriptwriters and designers came up with a superhero with the look of a fly (or black grasshopper?).  His hyperactive brain can calculate and come up with a plan to destroy his foes within 100 milliseconds every time he faced death at the end of the show.

Dickinson did not just tell you why you can’t hit the fly, but also teach you how to hit the fly by aiming to hit in front of the fly (it will just hop a bit forward to evade your swat).  The research was published on August 28 in the journal Current Biology titled “Visually Mediated Motor Planning in the Escape Response of Drosophila”.