Flies That Do Calculus With Their Wings

DudeTheMath (522264) writes "Cornell University scientists studied how fruit flies respond to flight disturbances (instead of wind gusts, they used carefully controlled magnetic pulses) and found that the flies recover in as little as three wing beats (at 250 per second) by doing some kind of calculus in a little 'integrated circuit' of neurons that control the wings directly. The pitch and yaw results are already published, and the roll study is forthcoming."

Comments

Calculus?

[AK Marc]

That's like saying that a dog catching a ball or frisbee is doing calculus. Nope, it's experience. Push me this hard, and I push back that hard. It goes that way about that fast, and I'll go this way. Turbulence pushes me here, I'll twitch back. That doesn't mean calculus, that just means quick feedback.

A human-built bug might have to do the calculus, but the natural bugs don't.

Re:Calculus?

[stox]

Actually, it is doing calculus with a highly optimized analog computer. Amazing what Mother Nature can do given enough time.