The Wisdom of the Fly Crowds

Few animals have been more thoroughly studied than the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Scientists have sequenced its genome, tracked its development from single cell to fully-formed fly, and teased apart the neurons in its brain. They know this fly at the most intimate level, but for all that knowledge, they’ve been operating under one false assumption: that it’s a loner. Drosophila is classified as a solitary species.

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