Article: FLIES IN FLIGHT.(space research on fruit flies)

Give a cheer for Drosophila melanogaster. Its scientific name roughly means "dew-loving, pigmented stomach." The natural habitat of this tiny, redeyed creature gives it its common name -- fruit fly. Fruit flies have long been used in scientific experiments. They are easy to raise and study. And, according to geneticist Gerald Rubin, at least three-quarters of all human disease genes have related genes in the fruit fly. Rubin is part of a team which, as of February 2000, had decoded 97 percent of the fruit fly genome. He estimates that fruit flies and people have a remarkably similar genetic makeup. "A fruit fly is a human with wings," he says.

Fruit flies now ...

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