Why do flies buzz around in circles when the air is still? And why does it matter?
Why do flies buzz around in circles when the air is still? And why does it matter?
In a paper published online July 26, 2024 by the scientific journal Current Biology, University of Nevada, Reno Assistant Professor Floris van Breugel and Postdoctoral Researcher S. David Stupski respond to this up-until-now unanswered question. And that answer could hold a key to public safety — specifically, how to better train robotic systems to track chemical leaks.
“We don’t currently have robotic systems to track odor or chemical plumes,” van Breugel said. “We don’t know how to efficiently find the source of a wind-borne chemical. But insects are remarkably good at tracking chemical plumes, and if we really understood how they do it, maybe we could train inexpensive drones to use a similar process to find the source of chemicals and chemical leaks.”
A fundamental challenge in understanding how insects track chemical plumes — basically, how does the fly find the banana in your kitchen? — is that wind and odors can’t be independently manipulated.
Read more at University of Nevada, Reno
Image: Assistant Professor Floris van Breugel and postdoctoral researcher David Stupski have uncovered an automatic behavior in flies, sink and circle, which involves lowering altitude and repetitive, rapid turns in a consistent direction. It shows that flying flies are able to assess the conditions of the wind before deploying a strategy to find a odor (which leads to a food source) using a strategy that will work well under those conditions. Flies aren't just reacting to an odor with a preprogrammed response: they are responding in context-appropriate manner. This knowledge potentially could be applied to train more sophisticated algorithms for scent-detecting drones to find chemical leaks. (Credit: Chris Moran)
