Albeit this isn’t really the first time for researchers to conduct tests on fruit flies, what we are about to tell you is almost mind-boggling. Geneticists from the Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada and the University of California were able to successfully breed fruit flies that have numerical skills. If you’re thinking about calculus or algebra, that seems to be rather far-fetched. Instead, the new breed of fruit flies can reportedly figure out the difference between two or more flashes of light during the series of tests conducted.
But it wasn’t easy. The geneticists had to breed more than 40 species before the evolution occurred. In case you’re wondering what’s the point of the research, the team believes that their study will help dyscalculia patients in the future. “The obvious next step is to see the how the fruit flies’ neuro-architecture has changed,” said Tristan Long of Canada’s Wilfrid Laurier University. Long added that their research is still a far cry from the team’s ultimate goal, citing that comparing the genetic make-up of the evolved fruit fly to that of a standard test fly has to be done.
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