Studying the flight mechanics of the pesky fruit fly is helping scientists develop small "flying robots," which are raising important questions about the risks and benefits of emerging technologies to society, said Cornell Professors Itai Cohen and Bruce Lewenstein at the Sept. 13 Science Cabaret, before an enthusiastic, standing-room only crowd of all ages at Delilah's on Cayuga in downtown Ithaca.

"When it comes to locomotion ... at the moment, we're far from having a technology that beats what these animals can do," said Cohen, associate professor of physics.

To get closer, his research group uses high-speed cameras to collect flight data from fruit flies and then generates computer simulations of fly flight. These data and simulations, he said, are used to break down each component of wing motion that allows flies to hover, propel and navigate themselves through space.

Cohen also studies microscopic fly body structures that make this type of flight possible, such as a structure that is essentially a microscopic "fly gyroscope" -- the so-called haltere senses body rotation and allows the fly to stabilize and control its flight. Without these halteres, fruit flies are incapable of flight, he said.

Understanding flight at the nano scale, Cohen said, has led to the commercial development of "flapping machines," which are essentially miniature flying robots. These robotic flappers merge insights from nanotechnology and biology, said Cohen.

AeroVironment Inc. in Southern California, for example, is using principles of flight mechanics, some uncovered by Cohen's fruit fly experiments, to design unmanned robotic flapping machines at the size of a small bird, primarily for use by the U.S. military.

"You don't notice something that's hovering if it's flapping ... it looks like a bird. For surveillance, there's an obvious advantage," said Cohen. "At the moment, these robots are not more maneuverable than small helicopters. In the future however I think this will be the case," and they will be useful for military operations, noted Cohen.

However, emerging nanotechnology generates a host of ethical, political and social issues, said Lewenstein, professor of communication, during an interactive audience discussion that included moral issues in robotic warfare, protection of privacy, safety and control of emerging technologies.

"Who takes the profit [from new technologies], and who gets the risk?" asked one audience member.

"When we think about nanotechnology, we [should] think about it in the same way we think about all kinds of emerging technologies, like biotech or cognitive enhancement or robotics," said Lewenstein. All these technologies are revolutionary, leading to radical changes in scientific practice and raising questions about regulation and governance of new technology, he noted.

"When you start trying to look across the emerging technologies what you come up with are a series of issues involving power, justice and fairness," said Lewenstein.

"For better or worse, the way our economy is driven is by production of new technology ... the question is, how as a society do we deal with technology that is moving forward at a very rapid pace?" asked Cohen.

Science Cabaret, which this month was sponsored by the Sciencenter, is a free monthly event that is open to the public, held at Delilah's on Cayuga at 112 S. Cayuga St.

Graduate student Joyanna Gilmour is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.