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Sometimes science manages to do something that just makes you think... Wow.
It's not necessarily a big thing. It's just an incredible feat of human ingenuity. And
this is one of those. This is actual footage filmed from inside a fly, in flight.
A team of scientists from the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, Oxford University
and Imperial College used intense X-rays to film inside the blowfly during flight, shedding
light on one of the most intricate and complex biological mechanisms known in nature. This
really is something rather special.
Anyone who has merely tried to swat a fly will know just how difficult that is, so imagine
trying to focus on one. To get up close enough to take readings, the team tethered the insect
to a turntable with air passing over it, allowing the fly to move as if it were flying freely,
but without having to try and track it.
A lot of effort, but the results are staggering; dozens of actuators power the wings and initiate
three dimensional manoeuvres. The way the fly steers using its whole thorax is revealed,
a mechanism which had previously not been understood as it seemed too light and weak
to control flight. Flies may not be the most romantic of natures creatures on the outside,
but they're really, really cool on the inside.