Genetically Modified Fruit Flies Can Smell Light
Blue Light Special A petri dish with fly larvae, irradiated with blue light from underneath. Unchanged larvae normally avoid areas exposed to light. But this light smells like bananas, so the modified larvae move toward it. Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum via PhysOrgBlue light smells like delicious bananas Blue light smells like bananas -- if you're a genetically modified fruit fly. Scientists in Germany figured out how to modify fruit fly larvae so they can "smell" light, encouraging them to move toward it, rather than away from it like they normally would. Before you get excited about actually smelling Skittles when you see a rainbow, however, bear in mind that the fruit fly larvae are much easier to manipulate than humans. The work involves activating single receptor neurons out of 28 olfactory neurons. All the olfactory neurons were capable of producing a protein that is activated by light. The researchers had to choose which...