@alex_p_roe Speaking of fruit fly research, you'd be amused or surprised to learn that the original U-net architecture (which today powers stable diffusion, among many other machine learning techniques) introduced in a paper by Ronneberger et al. (2015; https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.04597 ) was developed to perform image segmentation of fly neural tissue as imaged with electron microscopy, to reconstruct neurons and therefore map the brain connectome.

So all those "wasteful" research funding grants to fruit fly research motivated and led to the biggest discovery fueling the whole of the modern "AI" boom. One never knows where basic research will lead, it's impossible to predict. Hence basic research is not at all wasteful, on the contrary, it's essential, it's the foundation of a rich, wealthy, creative society. And also very cheap, comparatively: https://albert.rierol.net/tell/20160601_Unintended_consequences_of_untimely_research.html

Search also for the returns on the human genome project, or on the humble origins of DNA sequencing, to name just two among many.

#Drosophila#StableDiffusion#MachineLearning #academia

100 years of #quantummechanics this year! Werner Heisenberg introduced fundamental uncertainty into physics and demolished Newtons clockwork.
Few people know that Werner Heisenberg's youngest son Martin spent his career introducing uncertainty into #neuroscience studying #drosophila fruit flies.

His experiments can tell us a lot about how human brains work. I think we ought to embrace the uncertainty!

https://bjoern.brembs.net/2025/07/embrace-the-uncertainty/

Hacer un doctorado en ciencias tiene un poco de apostolado.

Hoy, como #orientadororgulloso me doy el gusto de compartir el #preprint del segundo artículo del doctorado de Cristina Parada.

Poco se sabe del gen Ptr, aunque perderlo es, casi seguro, una condena a muerte antes de nacer (afecta seriamente los músculos, y probablemente el desarrollo del sistema nervioso entre otras cosas).

Usando moscas de la fruta, un bichito conveniente y barato, Cristina y un gran equipo descubrieron que una mutación en Ptr altera la maduración y dinámica de las células del sistema inmunitario.
Cuánto pueda decirnos esto de alteraciones más profundas del sistema inmunitario está por verse, pero es sin duda un hallazgo importante.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.03.662979v1

@constanzasilvera
#pedeciba #biologia #phd #doctorado #ciencias #drosophila #drosophilamelanogaster #iibce #biorxivpreprint @biorxiv_devbio @flypapers #udelar #posgrado #mujeresenciencias#biologíadeldesarrollo #development #biologiacelular #madeinuruguay#Uruguay