Welcome back from winter break! Hopefully, it was relaxing and rejuvenating, and everyone is ready for Semester Two to begin. I know that in Tennessee, winter is becoming warmer and warmer every year. But I can confidently say that these last few weeks in Riga have shown some of the coldest temperatures I’ve ever felt! The high (the high!) last week was 8 degrees Fahrenheit, with some of the low nearing -10F. Needless to say, I was not outside doing research with the birds during the week of bitter coldness. But luckily, there are plenty of experiments that can be run with our Drosophila (fruit fly) populations. I’ve been testing it for a while, but now it is finally time to dive headfirst into our work with them.
Drosophila are the epitome of a model organism in biology, meaning numerous studies have been conducted with this organism to understand basic biological processes. Drosophila are cheap, easy to maintain, and reproduce quickly, making them perfect for running experiments and getting a high number of replications.
As a quick reverse rundown, we start new fly colonies by putting five male and ten female flies into vials.
