for coming up with a great experiment. Did you know that fruit flies can live for up to a day without their heads? Miesenbock and his team at Yale U. shine unfocused laser light down their throacic ganglion (equivalent to our spinal cords) to simulate nerve impules coming from their missing brains. This replaces stimulation with electrodes which is very difficult and inaccurate. With the laser signals they have been able to initiate jumping and flying responses. Amazing.
From Discover magazine, September 2005, p. 11
