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Why Sarah Palin is wrong about fruit flies – Times Online

Why Sarah Palin is wrong about fruit fliesHer flippant comment about science reveals a great misunderstanding
TimesOnline  Mark Henderson November 1, 2008 “…………..Taxpayers’ money, she pointed out, was being wasted on “things like fruit fly research”…………………It is her broader disdain for research into fruit flies, though, that is most worrying. For this is a discipline that has delivered some of the most important advances yet made in genetics and biology, and that continues to offer insights of great promise……………………..In the 1920s, Hermann Muller used flies to demonstrate that radiation can induce genetic mutations. In the 1980s, fruit flies allowed Janni Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric Wieschaus to show that a common set of “master genes” govern embryonic development across many species, including humans. And the insects have yielded important clues to the workings of the brain and nervous system………………………..Fundamental biological research, of which fruit fly work is a mainstay, is essential to the science that brings forth new medical understanding.

Why Sarah Palin is wrong about fruit flies – Times Online

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November 3, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics