Ever wonder how flies walk on the ceiling?

[miriam_e]

Things like this drive me nuts wondering about it. I once spent many hours watching flies land on the ceiling to work out how they land and take off. Think about it for a second... their wings are on their backs and the ceiling is above them... so how do they land?

Anyway, this isn't about that. This is about how their feet work for walking on walls and ceilings. Fascinating!
http://www.primidi.com/2006/04/07.html

Comments

[idealistagain.livejournal.com]

I have this habit of being kept awake at night wondering about things that most people wouldn't give a second thought to as well. Good to see I'm not the only one.

I once spent entirely too much time poring over city web sites and working out logistics to figure out how, exactly, the guy who drives the snowplow gets to work in the morning.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Ooooh! I love that kind of puzzle. I wonder if they drive the snowplow home of a night... (my young niece just said the same thing "He drives the snowplow to work?")

One of my favorite things is to watch a patch of lawn or ground for several minutes. After a few minutes you get to see how incredibly bustling with life is the barest, most ordinary section of ground. Another related thing I love doing is to relax deeply while staring at a single point on the ground. Your visual system needs change to generate information, and your eyes constantly tremble to ensure the scene moves on your retina. By forcing yourself to stop this motion the scene loses almost all its detail and fades to grey... except where change is still occurring. So all the ants in your visual field show brightly -- you'll be amazed at how many there are. Not only that, but every now and then a blade of grass will flick to a new, higher position... that's right you can actually see the grass growing!!