This article was originally featured on The slot Conversation.

 

Sitting outside on a summer evening always sounds relaxing until flies and mosquitoes arrive–then the swatting begins. Despite their minuscule eyes and a brain roughly 1 million times smaller than yours,

flies can evade almost every swat.Flies can thank their fast, sophisticated eyesight and some neural quirks for their ability to escape swats with such speed and agility.

 

Our lab investigates insect flight and vision, with the goal of finding out how such tiny creatures can process visual information to perform challenging behaviors, such as escaping your swatter so quickly.