geekosystem

Summer time is just around the corner, which means that house fly season is about to get really real. Out here on the east coast, we're more worried about the plague of locusts cicadas that's about to descend upon us, but flies are certainly no treat either. Thanks to the miracles of modern science though, you may one day be able to put down the swatter and relax without worrying about some insect rubbing its disease ridden hands all over your food. That's because a team of scientists at the Agricultural Research Service have identified a virus that renders flies incapable of breeding and could help to curb populations of the creatures in the future.

Fly larvae -- fine, maggots -- that are raised on food spiked with alcohol grow up into flies who can't learn normally without the aid of a little booze juice, marking yet another way in which maggots are pretty much just like college students. A study demonstrating the difficulties maggots experienced while trying to process new information without the aid of a morning beer to take the edge off things appears this week in the journal Current Biology, which reminds us that keg stands are not always recreational choices -- sometimes they are educational tools.

Stefan Greif from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and team discovered that Natterer's bats listen for the sound of copulating flies to locate and eat them. Apparently, the bats can hear the buzzing noise emitted by male flies while mating, alerting them to the narrow window of opportunity to score a double meal.

A new species of fly was recently discovered in Thailand and now holds the title of the world's smallest fly. Entomologists suggest that this fly might also hold the title of the world's smallest decapitator. Ants the world over, beware! Euryplatea nanaknihali will hunt you, find you, and mount your head over its fireplace.

Cryptochrome, a light-sensitive protein present in human eyes has the ability to act as a sensor, detecting magnetic fields and subsequently acting as part of an internal navigation system. There is only one problem, while it is present in human eyes cryptochrome doesn't help humans sense magnetic fields. New research has shown that the human protein can work as part of an internal navigation system, but in fly (Drosophila) eyes.

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Worcester Polytechnic Institute have demonstrated that the human cryptochrome protein CRY2 can restore magnetoreceptive ability in Drosophila individuals whose natural ability to sense magnetic fields has been damaged. Cryptochrome is a common protein, it is present in the eyes of birds, who are known to use their internal knowledge of magnetic fields to guide their flight.

First there were Christian Dior branded contacts. Then came Lady Gaga’s anime lenses. And we thought there was no way for eye-related products to be any more bizarre. But then we saw these. One young British artist, Jessica Harrison, designed her very own set of fake lashes made entirely out of fly’s legs. Proceed to ruin your breakfast by watching the video  at Styleite.