This intricate map of a fruit fly brain could signal a revolution in neuroscience
This video features images of the largest and most complex brain ever fully mapped by scientists – that of an adult fruit fly. To bring these detailed images to life, it took scientists from 146 labs and 122 institutions in a project known as FlyWire, led by Princeton University. If charting the brain of this small creature sounds like anything less than an extraordinary breakthrough, consider that the 140,000 neurons and the many millions of synapses the project details mark an extraordinary leap from the worm brain (302 neurons) and the larval fruit fly brain (3,000 neurons) that scientists have previously mapped. And, while fully mapping a human brain of roughly 86 billion neurons is likely still many years from fruition, the team behind FlyWire believes that their project could represent a formidable step towards better understanding brain diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Via Colossal
Video by FlyWire Princeton

videoBiology
For 3 billion years, life was unicellular. Why did it start to collaborate?
4 minutes

videoBiology
Dive deep into an egg cell to see how ageing reboots when a new life begins
2 minutes

videoMathematics
After centuries of trying, we’ve yet to arrive at a perfect way to map colour
20 minutes

videoAnimals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes

videoBiology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
4 minutes

videoBiology
‘Save the parasites’ may not be a popular rallying cry – but it could be a vital one
11 minutes

videoEvolution
The many ways a lizard tongue sticks, grasps, pinches and plops – in slo-mo
6 minutes

videoBiology
Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short
3 minutes

videoEcology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes