Photo: Fruit Flies' Aerial Stunts Inspire Brain Study

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A female Mexican fruit fly lays eggs in a grapefruit.

Although they are agricultural pests in the wild, fruit flies in the research lab have long been an easy tool for helping scientists study and manipulate genes.

Now researchers are using genetic engineering to study how the tiny insects are able to make rapid mid-air turns and how the brain cells involved in this process affect the flies' entire systems.

Photograph by Jack Dykinga/USDA

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