Rockefeller University

How fruit flies chase invisible ribbons of smell to get to their source

Fruit flies find food or mates by following smells. The smell travels in invisible ribbons called odor plumes. In the wild, wind breaks these plumes into pieces, so the fly gets the smell only now and then. Scientists did not know how a fly with a tiny brain can follow such a broken signal. For a long time, they thought flies used a pattern called surge and cast.