By Peter Weiss
In the past decade, biologists discovered a new mechanism by which animals locate sounds. The finding emerged from the observation that a parasitic fly stalks crickets by sound, even though the fly’s head is too small for any of the previously known sound-localization mechanisms to work. Now, engineers are creating a micro-microphone inspired by the fly’s extraordinary ear.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/12/833.jpg?resize=150%2C89&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/12/834.jpg?resize=150%2C91&ssl=1)
“The fly has given us an entirely different way of looking at microphone design,” says Ronald N. Miles of the State University of New York at Binghamton.