Experiments with flies: artifice or nature?

Fotografia: Alfred Sturtevant al seu despatx (1949). Gentilesa dels arxius, California Institute of Technology: http://archives.caltech.edu/

The fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is one of the most popular organisms in biology, and it has now become a key element in biomedical research. It was introduced into the laboratory more than a century ago. Within that new space, it was easier to research it, with greater control and effectiveness, than in it would be in its everyday environment. But when life is created and re-created exclusively within the laboratory, what we understand as ‘nature’ becomes something substantially different. In this second dialogue, we will be discussing the proportions of nature and artifice in experiments with flies, and whether what we learn from them every day can be accepted as reliable information about the natural world.

Cycle: Nature in the laboratory: biological knowledge and its biases

Organized by: Residence for Researchers CSIC-Generalitat of Catalonia