for National Geographic News To swat a fly can be a lesson in
futility. The insect darts from each swipe with uncanny
precision, altering its course to zip off in nearly the opposite
direction. Precisely how a fly achieves its aerial acrobatics is
more than a curiosity of annoyance for Michael Dickinson, a
bioengineer at the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena. Dickinson has built an entire research lab, not to
mention professional career, seeking an answer to just how a
fly's brain controls its muscles in precision flight. "An
interest in the brain led to an interest in flight and
aerodynamics," said Dickinson. "I've spent a lot of time with
folks in the lab trying to figure out the basic aerodynamics of
insect flight." Together with Steven Fry, a biologist at the
University of Zurich in Switzerland, and Rosalyn Sayaman, a
research assistant also at the California Institute of
Technology, Dickinson determined how common fruit flies use
their wings to make 90-degree turns at speeds faster than a bl