On Sun, 15 Aug 2004 09:41:26 +0100, Kay
wrote:

In article , Stephen Howard
writes
On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 19:39:33 +0100, Kay
wrote:

What about Venus fly trap, which ignores a prod with a pencil, but
reacts to a live and buzzing fly?

That it can discriminate is perhaps down to a array of finely honed
sensors. I'd bet it wouldn't do so well with, say, an artist's
brush...unless it reacts to a range of frequencies that might be set
up by the beating of an insect's wing?

No it's a very simply arrangement - it has several hairs, rather like
cats' whiskers, and more than one of them has to be touched in sequence
to trigger the response.

Aha.. that's why I figured the artist's brush would probably trigger a
response.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{who is at}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk