To celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month the Museum is sharing the stories of 27 inspirational women, alongside the animals they work with the most.

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Dr Caroline Fabre

Department of Zoology

“Scientists study the courtship of true flies as it helps us understand how nerves and muscles in the body allow behaviours and communication between individuals.

I discovered that flies communicate during courtship in a way that is often overlooked because it is silent to us: they communicate by sending vibrations through the ground (it is called substrate-borne communication). I am studying how this signal functions, and how males and females produce and receive the vibrations. It is important to understand this channel of communication in order to understand insect mating habits, which could lead to environmentally friendly pest control.”

Find out more about Caroline’s research here.

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