Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

At New Scientist: Specialized wings make house flies harder to swat

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We knew the fix was in when you can’t have a decent picnic in Canada in those rare moments in summer:

Yarger suggests this haltere movement increases the amount of sensory information these flies receive, but what they can sense and how it is processed remains unclear.

“We think there might be a pathway from halteres to the legs that’s causing them to take off faster,” says Yarger. “It doesn’t go through any central nervous system, it’s almost like a reflex,” she says.

Being able to have a speedy take-off allows this group of flies to better avoid harm.

Ibrahim Sawal, “Houseflies have specialised wings that make them harder to swat” at New Scientist

So much intelligence in nature. Why couldn’t some of it be organized to make them buzz off?

Comments
Polistra, you misunderstood my comment. When i talked about an engineering SCI-FI, what i meant was the size of the house/fruit fly. To design an autonomous self-navigating flying system in fruit fly size - makes it an engineering SCI-FI (and not the wings flapping). Look at the following video, the 'robotic bee' was designed by the best engineers from Harvard, MIT. This robotic 'fly' flaps, but it still looks like a bad joke. Compare it to a fruit fly, or a house fly or a bee. It really looks like a joke. Moreover, notice the tiny wire which is needed to power this funny thing. Obviously, this thing is unable to carry a battery pack, most probably, too heavy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJCMIsLuGpg PS: and then a Darwinian biologist comes around, and will insult me by telling me some crazy absurd theory developed in 19th century, and try to convince me (without a single evidence) how a fruit fly self-designed by some trial/error process. But these Darwinian geniuses, never show us the errors...martin_r
January 17, 2021
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Good point from Martin. Even though we've been attempting to imitate birds and flies ever since Leonardo, we still haven't managed to fly by flapping. No amount of engine efficiency can get there. (yet).polistra
January 16, 2021
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looking at the house fly, all Darwinians, let me remind you, that ... despite all the sophisticated technology humans developed in 21st century, to create/design an autonomous self-navigating flying system in a size of a house fly, is even in 21st century an engineering SCI-FI... yes, there were some attempts (Harvard, MIT), but these design attempts look more like a joke compared to a 'stupid' house fly. not to mention, there are much smaller autonomous self-navigating flying systems e.g. famous fruit fly. Why on earth, should i believe, that something so sophisticated in respect to its size, was invented by some mysterious blind unguided process ? What is wrong with all Darwinians ? Especially in 21st century... I was wondering, why clever Darwinian biologists don't team up with clever Darwinian engineers and go to design a stupid house fly in their fancy labs or wherever ...martin_r
January 16, 2021
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it would be great, if Darwinists can finally explain how insect wings evolved in the first place... 150 years gone, and we, stupid creationists and ID-proponents, still waiting for a scientific explanation on how insect wings evolved. E.g. mosquitos wings flap 200 times per second. I, as a mechanical engineer, i am eager to know, how something so sophisticated can evolve with no help from an engineer. How natural unguided natural process managed to perfectly synchronize such a high frequency of both wings (left and right). It seems, that i have to wait another 150 years till some clever Darwinian biologist comes along and explains to me ... and then another 150 years, and then another 150 years....martin_r
January 16, 2021
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This is not newAaronS1978
January 15, 2021
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