The Frog and the Fly

Your average frog loves a good meaty fly. But to this amphibian predator, a stationary fly might not register as something worth nabbing, if it is seen at all. “[A frog] will starve to death surrounded by food if it is not moving,” wrote the authors of a 1959 paper in Proceedings of the IRE [Institute of Radio Engineers]. Only when the fly takes off does the frog’s eye-brain messaging system kick on and suggest tongue action. The movement itself (actually, the resulting change in the intensity of light) transforms fly into food. Or really, nothing into something.Wild how that works. I highly recommend you read through the paper linked above for a detailed explanation of the frog’s eye-brain connection. It’s delightful reading (minus the part about what the frog went through).Now. I’m looking for an analogy here; I’m sure there must be one. Is it this? That we, like the frog, can be blind to things that aren’t making a fuss, that aren’t yelling at the top of their lungs like the Whos…

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