Also at The Atlantic by the hand of no less than the legendary Ed Yong!
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/05/snow-flies-insects-glaciers/674240/
Freeze-tolerant flies that shed legs as a last-ditch effort to survive when these freeze. The hottest topic of the moment.
#diptera #insects #entomology #snowflies #snowfly
Nice to see a major newspaper pick up entomology news:
“Snow fly in US and Canada can detach its legs to survive, research shows”
“Flies chilled to sub-zero temperatures amputate one or more of their six limbs to protect their internal organs”
Featuring @tuthill no less!
“It’s gruesome”, he says—ah the wonders of the insect world.
The paper: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.29.541388v1.full.pdf
By the way John; care to tell us about daddy long legs? To me that’s an opillion, a kind of spider. Not a fly!
#insects #entomology #SnowFlies #SnowFly #Diptera #CraneFlies
#craneflies #diptera #snowfly #snowflies #entomology #insects
@tuthill How cool – and pleasantly surprised that the CNS dimensions aren't out of scope. More importantly, are you looking into the genome of this #SnowFly? Even mass spec of its cytoplasmic membranes, and tests on its ion channels, and anything else related to enabling neurons to operate at cold temperatures?
An interview with John Tuthill @tuthill https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)00082-9 AKA Mr. #SnowFly (the invertebrate equivalent of crows flying at -20C in the Alps) and #Drosophila nerve cord #connectome explorer.
#connectome #drosophila #snowfly
Allow #myself to #introduction #myself.
I am a #basic neuroscientist and Associate Professor at the University of Washington, where my lab studies how the brain senses and moves the body (#proprioception #motorcontrol).
I will mainly be tooting about the #research and accomplishments of the scientists in my lab, new and old #neuroscience papers that incite me, and efforts to improve the rigor and equity of science. I may slip in the occasional #snowfly pic.
I hope to use #ScienceMastodon for discovering new scientific #manna and for unexpected interactions with #Scientists and #PseudoScientists alike.
#myself #introduction #basic #proprioception #motorcontrol #research #neuroscience #snowfly #sciencemastodon #manna #scientists #pseudoscientists