And the winner is ... the fruit fly?

In high school biology, I came across Drosophila in the textbook.  There was a dead fly between the pages ;)

No, seriously, it was in high school that I knew about how it was not the frog that we dissected but the Drosophila that was the favorite of the researchers.  For a very important reason--drosophila have a life cycle of two weeks.  A fortnight later, you have a new generation.  A month later, it is the grand kids buzzing around!

Which is why over the years Nobel Prizes have been awarded to science originating from fruit fly research, including the award this year.

Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young – all based in the US – were awarded the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for their work on the molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythms – in other words, the 24-hour body clock that controls lives throughout the animal kingdom. Crucially, this work was done largely by experimenting on fruit flies.
Nor was this a first for drosophila research. At least five other groups have received Nobels for their work using fruit flies to unpick the secrets of human physiology and biology in general.

How fascinating, right?  Every day it is such awesomeness.

Today, scientists believe that about 75% of known human disease genes have a recognisable match in fruit flies. These include Down’s, Alzheimer’s, autism, diabetes and cancers of all types. “It’s almost as if they were designed to help scientists,” says geneticist Steve Jones.

Re-read that line:  “It’s almost as if they were designed to help scientists.”  More than anything else, you will need that at the end of this post, and to puke when you watch the embedded video of a know-it-all!

But, we now have a president who is smarter than the smartest.  He knows more than the scientists. More than the generals. The smartest human that ever lived.  So, ...

This year, President Trump proposed budget cuts of 22 percent for the National Institutes of Health and 11 percent for the National Science Foundation. These two institutes fund most basic biological research in the United States.

Exactly.  

The importance of government support for basic research goes well beyond understanding nature. Basic research leads to advances that can transform industry and technology. In biology, current revolutionary approaches to genome editing and cancer immunotherapy owe their existence to basic research.

To paraphrase Monty Python, other than all that, what has science ever done anything for us, right?

Fucking Republican anti-science idiots!