Flight of the Fruit Fly*

There comes a time in each of our lives where we grab a thick section of the morning paper, roll it up and set off to do battle with one of nature’s most accomplished aviators - the fly. If, however, instead of swatting we could magnify our view and experience the world in slow motion we would be privy to a world-class ballet full of graceful figure-eight wing strokes, effortless pirouettes, and astonishing acrobatics. After watching such a magnificent display, who among us could destroy this virtuoso? How do flies produce acrobatic maneuvers with such precision? What control mechanisms do they need to maneuver? More abstractly, what problem are they solving as they fly? In this talk I will discuss our strategy for investigating these questions and reveal some of the underlying mechanisms for flight maneuvers, wing actuation, and neural circuits governing flight stability. Finally, I will comment on the implications of these discoveries for investigations aimed at elucidating the evolution of flight.