Posts tagged ‘science’
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A stained glass brain
I am currently in the middle of “Neurofly”, a scientific meeting about the neurobiology of Drosophila, which is being held in Manchester. Neurobiology is the study of how the nervous system develops, evolves, is organised and leads to behaviour. Drosophila is the geneticists’ friend – a tiny fly that has been used for a century to study the basics of genetics.
Because we know so much about “the fly” (of course, it is just one fly species amongst many tens of thousands, but neurobiologists tend to forget about that) – and above all about its genetics – we can investigate almost anything about the fly.
Despite being “mere” insects, flies share a great deal in common with humans (after all, we are both animals – we are built the same way, breathe oxygen, eat and so on). As a result, the study of Drosophila can shed light on a remarkable range of human behaviours and even diseases.
For example, tomorrow we’ll be hearing about what flies can tell us about how Alzheimer’s disease develops. You can hear more about Neurofly on Radio 4′s “Material World” programme, which had an interview with my colleague, Andreas Prokop.
Although scientists are generally portrayed as a hard-boiled bunch, and our scientific articles are full of the most awful dull prose, in meetings people are much more aesthetically-minded and produce images to illustrate their findings that are often striking.
In one of today’s session I was struck by a picture presented by Ian Meinertzhagen of Dalhousie University in Canada. Ian is interested in making a complete map of the fly’s visual system. This is incredibly complicated, as he showed us. His picture showed an electron microscope image of just some of the cells in the part of the fly’s brain devoted to processing visual stimuli. He’d coloured in some of the cells to illustrate his point. Having recently visited Rheims Cathedral, I was struck by how much they look like a modern piece of stained glass…
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Malaria-Resistant Mosquito Engineered
Scientists in Arizona have engineered a genetically modified mosquito which cannot pass malaria to humans. They’ve introduced a gene affecting the mosquito’s gut, which prevents the malaria parasite from developing. The ultimate aim is replacing wild mosquitoes with the lab bred population – although scientists say this would take at least a decade to achieve and many question if it is possible at all.
Image: Lead researcher Michael Riehle holds up the genetically altered mosquitoes. © Riehle Lab, University of Arizona
