To Know a Fly

I assigned this little gem of a book to my psychology students when I was teaching at Antioch College in the late 1960's. I am now asking the teachers who are offering a Science and Math Summer Camp for Alaska Native middle school students to read it, to re-ignite their sense of the fun and excitement of scientific inquiry. Truly a timeless book, it is similar to "The Little Prince" in its capacity to stay in one's thoughts for decades.

An absolute classic little book that uses humor and cartoons to illustrate the joys of science and the scientific method. Perfect for students from junior high through university. I only wish it was still in print so I could assign it for the students in my animal behavior lab course.

"To Know a Fly" is very well known among researchers in the life sciences, but almost completely unknown to the general reading public. That's a great pity, as this is one of the clearest and wittiest books ever written about how science is actually done. Dethier does a superb job in conveying the excitement of discovery, even in as mundane a subject as the common housefly.Amidst entertaining passages describing how to anethesize a fly (pop it in in the freezer) or make fly scapels (break up razor blades) or surgical probes (drop dressmaker's pins on the floor) you'll learn, in passing, a lot about the neurophysiology of the fly. If you're student in the life sciences, you owe it to yourself to hunt down a copy of this book. If you're a reader with even a casual interest in science, grab this one if you come across a copy.

I read this book when I was in college, many years ago, unfortunately-- after-- I had struggled through the science curriculum.At the time, I thought how wonderful this book would be for a fifth or sixth grader whose opinion of the study of science has not yet been formed.In this book, the author takes the reader on a journey through the curiosity of the human spirit, to wonder-- the human desire to discover how things work-- to know the value of asking questions--, along with the tedium, the failures, the successes and the rewards of finding answers to those questions. Such is the nature of scientific research. That it was written with humor, on the study of flies, it was plain to see that the study or pursuit of science, is in fact FUN!

A college professor gave me this book to read as I began my laboratory experiments at Indiana University. The anecdotes constantly amuse, and the simple applications of the Scientific Method are inspiring.