The Flapping of Bumblebee Wings at 5,000 Frames Per Second

To human eyes, bees appear to float rather than fly. They glide along gracefully, seeming almost to be carried along on currents of air

However, if we could look more closely at them, we'd see a more complicated picture: Insects have to work hard to stay aloft, beating their wings at rates that can top out at 600 beats per second. But that work, at the molecular level, has been something of a mystery to us humans. How do airborne insects actually execute their impressive aerobatics? Do they fly like vertebrates do, using nervous signals and muscle contractions? Or do they have a more specialized mechanism for keeping themselves aloft? Read more...