Honeybee Navigation: Low-level and Cognitive Mechanisms. Anyone watching a honeybee find its way back home effortlessly after flying several kilometres in search of nectar would know that these insects are excellent navigators, despite their diminutive brains and relatively simple nervous systems. The aim of this proposal is to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms by which bees navigate repeatedly to an attractive food source, and recruit their nestmates to visit it. The findings should ....Honeybee Navigation: Low-level and Cognitive Mechanisms. Anyone watching a honeybee find its way back home effortlessly after flying several kilometres in search of nectar would know that these insects are excellent navigators, despite their diminutive brains and relatively simple nervous systems. The aim of this proposal is to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms by which bees navigate repeatedly to an attractive food source, and recruit their nestmates to visit it. The findings should illuminate important principles of animal navigation, as well as suggest novel strategies for robot navigation.Read moreRead less
How do bees orchestrate smooth landings? The results should pave the way for the development of novel, biologically inspired strategies for the control of landing in unmanned aerial vehicles. Endowing aircraft with the capability of autonomous flight and landing has been a major challenge in engineering technology. There is now considerable interest, nationally and world wide, in the development of small, intelligent, autonomous airborne vehicles for application in a number of areas of defense, ....How do bees orchestrate smooth landings? The results should pave the way for the development of novel, biologically inspired strategies for the control of landing in unmanned aerial vehicles. Endowing aircraft with the capability of autonomous flight and landing has been a major challenge in engineering technology. There is now considerable interest, nationally and world wide, in the development of small, intelligent, autonomous airborne vehicles for application in a number of areas of defense, surveillance and space exploration. The proposed research will help Australia maintain a leading edge in uncovering important biological principles of flight control that can be translated into useful technological applications.Read moreRead less
Suction pipette measurements of mammalian rod photoreceptor recovery following intense bleaching exposures. The aim of this project is to discover the events and processes that prevent retinal photoreceptors from recovering instantaneously following the cessation of exposure to extremely bright illumination. Recordings will be made from single rod photoreceptors cells isolated from the mammalian retina. The work will uncover the relative roles of the 'photoproducts' created when rhodopsin abso ....Suction pipette measurements of mammalian rod photoreceptor recovery following intense bleaching exposures. The aim of this project is to discover the events and processes that prevent retinal photoreceptors from recovering instantaneously following the cessation of exposure to extremely bright illumination. Recordings will be made from single rod photoreceptors cells isolated from the mammalian retina. The work will uncover the relative roles of the 'photoproducts' created when rhodopsin absorbs light: e.g. intermediates such as metarhodopsin and opsin. The molecular knowledge obtained will help us to understand why it is that the visual system recovers so slowly after the eye has experienced very intense light.Read moreRead less
The first stage of vision: transduction and adaptation in retinal photoreceptors. The project aims to provide a detailed understanding of the molecular steps involved in the first stage of vision - the conversion of light into a neural signal in the rod and cone photoreceptors of the retina. The significance of this is that it will explain the initial events that enable us to see, and will help explain the deficits that occur when the process fails. The outcome will be a comprehensive understand ....The first stage of vision: transduction and adaptation in retinal photoreceptors. The project aims to provide a detailed understanding of the molecular steps involved in the first stage of vision - the conversion of light into a neural signal in the rod and cone photoreceptors of the retina. The significance of this is that it will explain the initial events that enable us to see, and will help explain the deficits that occur when the process fails. The outcome will be a comprehensive understanding of how our photoreceptors respond with extreme sensitivity, yet great rapidity, and over an enormous range of light intensities, thus endowing us with our remarkable sense of vision.Read moreRead less