From SIMON ARCHER and JOE HIRANO
Once again summer is with us and so are flies and partially opened windows.
In this period we are, yet again, faced with the age-old conundrum of why
flies persist in banging their heads against the closed portion of the window
instead of flying out of the open part.
It has occurred to us that this may not be due to simple stupidity on
behalf of the fly, but may have a good physiological reason. Flies are probably
sensitive to polarised light and it is possible that the flies are selectively
flying towards the more polarised light that comes through the glass. Maybe
other readers can comment upon the validity of this theory.
Douglas Adams once wrote upon this very subject in his legendary guide.
He described the alien creation of a ‘superfly’ that was capable of flying
out of the open window. Perhaps modern genetics on Earth could engineer
a fly that lacked polarised light sensitivity and did the same.
Simon Archer and Joe Hirano Oristiano, Italy
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