Ep 27: Flight of the Ur-Sect (Michael Dickinson)

Why did conventional thinking in aerodynamics fail to explain how insects fly? What can robots teach us about how insects do it? How do insect brains direct their incredible aerial feats and get around in the world?

Michael Dickinson is a biologist at Caltech who uses robots to study how insects fly. More recently, he has focused on insect neurobiology and behavior. On this episode, Art and Marty talk with Michael about the mysteries of tiny insect flight, and how the presumably simple brains of such animals enable them to navigate sometimes vast distances. Read Michael’s JEB paper on how fruit flies navigate using celestial cues!
Cover photo by Floris van Breugel

This episode is sponsored by Journal of Experimental Biology. The journal is published by the Company of Biologists, a not-for-profit that has been supporting and inspiring the biological community since 1925. JEB is at the forefront of comparative physiology and biomechanics.