Fruit Flies Use Fighter Jet Moves

Researchers at the University of Washington have found that fruit flies are able to react like little aircraft when they are under attack from predators.

Biology professor Michael Dickinson says slow-motion cameras were used to capture the flies' movements as part of the study.

"The animals do these very very rapid banked turns, where they're flying and then they roll very quickly over, so they can move quickly away from the direction of the looming threat," he said.

Professor Dickinson says while it is more convenient to study fruit flies, many flies show the same types of behaviours.

"Staying away from predators is a really important part of life...my suspicion is that insects evolved these rapid manoeuvres a long time ago," he said.

But he says it's not yet known whether the new findings will have any impact for the fruit industry.

"I don't think it's really something that will impact farmers or fruit growers, because I don't think there's really any application that has to do with pest control that will manipulate or take advantage of these escape responses."

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

THANK YOU! For the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE, I get this joke.

Obviously Groucho is famous for it. And I never, ever understood it. At most, I would imagine a banana flying through the air, which made no sense, so I would just shrug. Never got it.

Now, with the help of the context of this article, finally, finally, I get it.

I am weeping with relief.

Now... do you have any calculus jokes?

Q: Why do they never serve beer at a math party?
A: Because you can't drink and derive...

Q: Why wont Goldilocks drink a glass of water with 8 pieces of ice in it?
A: It�s too cubed.

Q: What's the integral of (1/cabin)d(cabin)?
A: A natural log cabin!

Q: What is the first derivative of a cow?
A: Prime Rib!

Q: What is the value of the contour integral around Western Europe?
A: Zero.
Q: Why?
A: Because all poles are in Eastern Europe!

Q: How does a mathematician induce good behavior in her children?
A: "I've told you n times, I've told you n+1 times..."

Q: What does the Ph.D. in math with a job say to the Ph.D. in math without a job?
A: "Paper or plastic?"

Q: What is polite and works for the phone company?
A: A deferential operator.

Q: What did Al Gore play on his guitar?
A: An Algorithm

Q: Why was the parent function upset with its child?
A: It was stretched to its limit.

Q: What is purple and commutative?
A: An abelian grape

Q: Did you hear the one about the statistician?
A: Probably

Q: What wild animal is good at calculus?
A: The tangent lion.
A: A tangent.

Q: What is a proof?
A: One-half percent of alcohol.

Q: Why is a calculus book always unhappy?
A: Because it always has lots of problems.

Q: Why was the Calculus teacher bad at baseball?
A: He was better at fitting curves than hitting them.

Q: Why was the function so bent out of shape?
A: Its regression model was too tight a fit.

Q: What is the integral of log cabin d cabin?
A: Log Cabin + sea = houseboat.

Q: Why do you rarely find mathematicians spending time at the beach?
A: Because they have sine and cosine to get a tan and don't need the sun!

Q: What did one calculus book say to the other?
A: Don't bother me I've got my own problems!

Q: What's yellow and equivalent to the Axiom of Choice.
A: Zorn's Lemon.

Q: Why did the algebra students throw bottles of hand cream across the classroom?
A: They were investigating projectile lotion.

Q: What do you get if you cross an elephant with a zebra.
A: Elephant zebra sin theta.

Q: Why is it that the more accuracy you demand from an interpolation function, the more expensive it becomes to compute?
A: That's the Law of Spline Demand.

Someone released a set of supplementary notes on a textbook about differential calculus. It was a derivative work.

I have several Purple Martin houses in my backyard, love to watch them fly in the spring. I have noticed that when a martin approaches the house and is flying too fast they make a maneuver similar to a fighter jet on a visual approach to a runway. They fly an overhead pattern. They fly past the house, make a 180 degree turn, fly in the opposite direction from the house, make another 180 degree turn, and land on the house. All the while losing speed and altitude, exactly as I thousands of F-4’s do during my career.

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