Title: How do Insects Fly? The next Sawaal-Jawaab: Conversations on Science features Prof. Sanjay Sane of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, speaking about the wonders and puzzles of insect flight. Insects are evolution's great success story. They are everywhere, and seemingly in invincible numbers. How did insects get to be so numerous? One commonly held idea is that the evolution of flight enabled insects to become masters of the aerial niche, and gain substantial advantage over their prey and predators, as well as occupy far-flung ecological niches which were out of the reach of other animals. In this world view, flight holds a central place and for good reasons, but it is almost easy to overlook that flying is a difficult task for animals which are small, because small size demands faster wing motion to stay aloft . How do insects fly given the constraints of size? This is the focus of this conversation.

We will have a short 20 minute talk by our guest scientist, during and after which the audience is invited to engage in an informal, free-flowing discussion with the speaker. Interested participants of all ages are welcome. No prior knowledge or expertise is required.