Aiming to the side: Bats apply the laws of sonar physics to locate objects in the dark
Thursday, February 4, 2010 - 14:14
in Physics & Chemistry
The best way to track a moving object with a flashlight might be to aim it to one side, catching the object in the edge of the beam rather than the center. New research at the Weizmann Institute of Science reveals that bats, which 'see' with beams of sound waves, skew their beams off-center when they want to locate an object. The research, which recently appeared in Science, shows that this strategy is the most efficient for locating objects.