Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: Lewis Thomson on 20/01/2022 10:39:36
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Donald wants help finding answers to this
"Considering the housefly and it's amazing ability to fly and such a tiny brain, how much computing power does the fly's brain have and use for flight as compared to an autopilot set-up in a plane? Obviously flight is not learned but innate in such a tiny, short lived organism, so how is it so easily transferred through DNA? And is the human innate ability to learn and speak languages a genetic transfer similar to a fly's innate knowledge of flying. How could this be in DNA?"
Discuss your thoughts in the comments below...
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Bees have been used as inspiration for self-guiding rockets and drones.
Drosophila Flies have the advantage that their brains and genetics have been studied in more detail than bees.
But if a goldfish can steer a tank, why not?
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Flies have an automatic wing-leveller: what would be their second pair of wings has evolved into "halteres" which vibrate rapidly and provide gyroscopic input. It's fascinating to watch (in slow motion) house flies landing on a ceiling by a somersault maneuver. I am perpetually in awe of anything that flies better than I can - and that means every animal born with wings!
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Apparently they taught pigeons to fly... a bomb.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon
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Terrain recognition was used for early cruise missiles, so the pigeons' navigating abilities were not wasted but incorporated into some very neat software. But navigation is only half of flying - maintaining an appropriate altitude, speed and descent profile being the other bit, and whilst birds and insects do that very well for themselves, I haven't seen a mechanism that allows then to control those parameters of a larger vehicle.