Flies See the World In Slo-Mo, Say Researchers

An anonymous reader writes "'The smaller an animal is, and the faster its metabolic rate, the slower time passes for it, scientists found. This means that across a wide range of species, time perception is directly related to size, with animals smaller than us seeing the world in slow motion.' No wonder it took so long to grow up!" Here's the original paper.

Re:So Ents see life fly by?

[ekgringo]

I think you've got it backwards and Tolkien was right. As I remember, the Ents were complaining that the much smaller hobbits were being too hasty. Their Entmoot took several hours just to get through the meet & greet stage and it took them a day or two to come to a decision to do something.

Re:Seniors see the world at blazing speeds

[dpilot]

Actually no. He's quoting the "pediatrician's rule of thumb", approximately.

Final height as an adult can be guessed by doubling a boy's height at 2 years, or a girls height at 18 months. Worked pretty well for both of my kids. (one of each)

Re:Within a species?

[Oligonicella]

Correct. For those who don't believe this, go out in a field and catch a rabbit bare handed.

As for the bronto, it's not really possible to know because we do not know what type of myelin sheathing they had on their nerves. It could be that their nerves propagated signals at 2mph (Iow end) or 200mph (highest). We don't know.

If 2mph, a sixty foot animal's brain would get the signal in about three seconds, at 200 mph at .03sec. Or anywhere in between.

Not really relevant though as the bronts had ganglia along their spines that did the reactions. Say the tail was 25 of that 60 and you have a little under a second low end perception time.

Re:Makes complete sense

[Anonymous Coward]

To kill flies (on a horizontal surface) with a high success rate, slowly move your hands near the fly so that your hands are about three inches above the surface and six inches apart. You should have the fly centered between your hands. That's the hard part-- getting into that position without spooking the fly.

Now, as fast as you can, clap your hands once and leave them together. Usually the fly will fly straight up between your hands. Unfortunately, killing the fly may require some mashing your hands around, or you can catch-and-release the fly to the outdoors assuming you can get outside without the use of your hands. It is sometimes possible to maneuver the fly around so you can get it pinched between two fingers to free up one of your hands.