Although finding fruit flies in your wine or beer can be a bit annoying, I hope people will pause to admire the tenacity of these clever little creatures. They are really just hungry animals looking for something to eat, and have no intention of ruining your happy hour. Michael Dickinson admireanimalannoy share on social
There's so many mysteries related to how flies are able to make their way through the world. I'd certainly like to know a lot more about how their brain works. I'd certainly like to know a lot more about just how they're put together. I mean, these animals are basically, topologically, spheres. They don't have bones as we do, of course. Michael Dickinson animalbasicallybone share on social
Although their maneuverability is limited, blind flies can fly remarkably well. Michael Dickinson blindflylimit Change image and share on social
If you watch a fly on, say, a coffee table, you'll see that they're rubbing their little legs together to groom themselves; they're actually quite clean creatures. Michael Dickinson cleancoffeecreature Change image and share on social
It is difficult, but intriguing, to imagine seeing the world as a fly might. First, flies don't have nearly the same visual resolution that we do... so you have to imagine a fuzzier image. Second, fly eyes are faster than our own and are very sensitive to motion. Michael Dickinson difficulteyefast share on social
For many years in my laboratory and other laboratories around the world, we've been studying fly behaviors in little flight simulators. You can tether a fly to a little stick. You can measure the aerodynamic forces it's creating. You can let the fly play a little video game by letting it fly around in a visual display. Michael Dickinson aerodynamicbehaviorcreate share on social
One of the fastest things a fruit fly does is take information from its eyes and react accordingly. Michael Dickinson eyefastfly Change image and share on social
The robotic fly that we actually make the most use of in our laboratory is actually not a small thing, it's a giant thing. It has about a meter wing span, and it flaps in three metric tons of mineral oil. And it is a so-called dynamically scaled fly. Michael Dickinson calldynamicallyflap share on social
It is best not to swat at the fly's starting position, but rather to aim a bit forward of that to anticipate where the fly is going to jump when it first sees your swatter. Michael Dickinson aimanticipatebite Change image and share on social
We discovered that fruit flies alter course in less than one one-hundredth of a second, 50 times faster than we blink our eyes, which is faster than we ever imagined. Michael Dickinson alterblinkdiscover Change image and share on social