NIFTI-funded research from Tom Daniel’s lab at the University of Washington was recently published in Science and has been receiving a wide array of media coverage. The research investigated how hawkmoths track the location of flowers in low-light conditions.
The article, “Luminance-dependent visual processing enables moth flight in low light”, by Simon Sponberg, Jonathan P. Dyhr, Robert W. Hall, and Thomas L. Daniel, can be found on the Science website. There is also a video associated with the published article (see below).
Science has compiled a summary of the media coverage on the research. Articles of note include:
- The New York Times, June 15, 2015: Hawkmoths Slow Brain to Dine in the Night
- Science, Perspective, June 12, 2015: Visual tracking in the dead of night
- The Washington Post, June 11, 2015: Evolution tuned this moth’s night vision to follow swaying flowers
- Smithsonian Magazine, June 11, 2015: Hovering Hawkmoths Slow Down Their Brains to See in the Dark
- UW Today, June 11, 2015: How the hawkmoth sees, hovers and tracks flowers in the dark