Complexity Digest 2008.36 - 11

4-Sept-2008

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Scientists Discover Why Flies Are So Hard To Swat, ScienceDaily Bookmark and Share

Excerpts: Over the past two decades, Michael Dickinson has been interviewed by reporters hundreds of times (...). One question from the press has always dogged him: Why are flies so hard to swat? "Now I can finally answer," says Dickinson, (...). (...) have determined the secret to a fly's evasive maneuvering. Long before the fly leaps, its tiny brain calculates the location of the impending threat, comes up with an escape plan, and places its legs in an optimal position to hop out of the way in the opposite direction. All of this action takes place within about 100 milliseconds after the fly first spots the swatter. (...)