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Drosophila melanogaster (male) (Bild: aka/André Karwath)
Elektrotechnik | Aus- und Weiterbildung-weitere | Techn.Englisch | Aus- und Weiterbildung

Technisches Englisch

Electric fields signal 'no flies zone'

13.03.2019

Elektrotechniker sollten englischsprachige Dokumentationen und Pläne lesen können. Dieser Beitrag erleichtert den Zugang zur englischen Sprache und vermittelt elektrotechnische Fachausdrücke.

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“Plastic can retain a charge for a long period and, given the use of plastic in the rearing of these insects and other small insects such as mosquitos, long term exposure to these fields is inevitable.

”The researchers put fruit flies in a Y-­shaped maze, with one arm of the maze exposed to an electric charge and the other receiving none. They found that the flies avoided the charged chamber and gathered in the non­-charged arm. Inte­restingly flies with no wings didn’t display this behaviour, and flies with smaller wings only avoided higher charges – sug­gesting it is the wings of the fly that are involved in detection and are affected by the fields.

This was borne out when subjecting stationary flies to electric fields. The researchers observed that the wings of the flies could be manipulated by a field of a similar strength to that which produ­ced the avoidance behaviour.

Professor Newland explains: “When a fly was placed underneath a negatively char­ged electrode, the static field forces caused elevation of the wings toward the electrode, as opposite charges were attracted.

“Static electric fields are all around us but for a small insect like a fruit fly it appears these fields’ electrical charges are significant enough to have an effect on their wing movement and this means they will avoid them if possible.”


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