Dr Ronny Rosner, an expert in insect visual neurophysiology, prepares to dissect a praying mantis in Dr Claire Rind’s insect lab at Newcastle University. This is part of a major new project in my lab, “Man, Mantis and Machine”, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The praying mantis is the only non-vertebrate known to have a form of 3D vision, which it uses to help it strike at prey. We want to understand the neuronal circuits in its brain which help it do this, in order to compare them to similar circuits in human beings and other animals, and to 3D vision algorithms in computers and robots. Ronny will be joining my lab next year to bring his expertise to bear on these questions.