Paloma gave a public talk at the Cambridge Science Festival, entitled "What can tiny nervous systems do?"
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Abstract:
By drinking a potion, Alice in Wonderland magically became a perfectly scaled down version of herself. In real life, such changes are not possible because miniaturization directly impacts the physiology of the organism. Nonetheless, tiny insects demonstrate that complex behaviours, such as controlled flight, can arise in organisms smaller than 1 cm. To keep the size of their nervous system small enough, these animals have to ’Keep-On-board’ the minimum number of neurons necessary to guarantee survival. In the case of miniature predators, such trade-off is exacerbated because catching a small and fast moving prey requires spatial and temporal precision from all parts of the nervous system. This behaviour is innate in insects, yet, humans need many years of practice to master similar tasks, such as catching a ball during a game of baseball, rugby or basketball.
The Festival also prominently featured high-resolution scans from the lab on promotional materials such as fliers and banners.
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