Andre Delambre is a brilliant scientist and exemplary husband. In the basement of his house has a laboratory where he developed a teleportation device. In one test, which tries to prove himself, a fly slips unexpectedly into the capsule teleporter. Dr. Genes Delambre and insect mix, with tragic results. These few lines, as many of you and ye shall have noticed, rightfully belong to the history of cinema. Indeed, the argument corresponds to the film Fly (The Fly , 1958). A long, long time told the physics involved in teleportation, so I will not dwell further on the matter, but this time I will focus on the biological aspects of the film. Yes, I know what you're thinking: who's telling me to get into this mess? For the truth is that nobody, but you know that the crusade of this blog is to take science as far as possible and contribute my part to scientific culture worldwide. So I offer this post to participate in the first edition of Biology Carnival organized by Raven in Micro Gaia. Before proceeding, I apologize for my own ignorance on the subject and the piles of which will certainly make mistakes. I promise to go to learn, that I miss.
Well, the start and without further delay. You see, apparently, flies belong to the order "Diptera " and can be found on our beloved planet more than 150,000 species, of which nearly 20,000 live in North America, where it develops (particularly in Canada) action of the film in question. At one point, the maid of the house refers to the insect as a "blue bottle (Calliphora vomitoria), classified as a suborder Nematocera and Brachycera. These flies are considered saprophytic, meaning that they feed on decaying organic matter.
After the doctor Delambre begin to transform into a monstrous creature, a mixture of fly and human, his wife asked to provide only food and a bowl of milk with rum. Although rich in protein, vitamin D and calcium, milk lacks other essential vitamins such as B and C (and also fat soluble, like the E and K). It seems unlikely that an organism mostly human can survive with such malnutrition.
flies tend to have relatively short life expectancy, within a few days to a few weeks. Perhaps this is the cause for which Delambre is extremely eager to show their status reversed. Every day that goes by his personality and behavior change becomes less human, more animal. No longer able to think clearly and ability to type on a typewriter or on the board (through which it communicates with his wife) is phased out. Many diseases associated with DNA exhibit this same characteristic of degeneration and progression.
Returning to the bowl of milk with rum. Flies have chemoreceptors (hairs) at their tips with analyzing the food and can distinguish a variety of flavors. The Delambre-fly monster has an arm-leg and head fly and, therefore, must have chemoreceptors in the first. However, at any time of the film is the creature use. Rather, they can hear sounds similar to those that occur when you suck a liquid, it seems that our poor friend is using its proboscis. Neither shows the behavior of Nematocera and Brachycera related to his habit of dissolving in saliva or regurgitate soluble elements solid food before being swallowed.
sensory stimuli Delambre-fly is another problem. Although entirely unable to talk, they can hear and understand his wife, Elaine. How does she do if you have a big head fly? Moreover, the flies "hear" through a tympanic membranes housed in his head, but their anatomy is quite different from that of mammals, being unable to process the same acoustic wavelengths. On the other hand, the organs of vision are also vastly different in flies and humans. The compound eyes of the former do not seem very appropriate time to identify keys of a typewriter. In addition, both the ear and the eye are used to capture information that is transmitted to the brain via nerve fibers. Does Delambre-fly a fly's brain, human or mixture of both?
The inability to make sounds audible and the frequencies involved and also treated him at the time, so I will not dwell further. Just note that a fly body attached to a tiny human head require lungs that would be responsible for blowing air to the vocal cords, if we want the latter to perform its function. The downside is that flies do not have lungs.
Changing the subject, it would be interesting to know the degree of viability as shown in the movie, do not you think? Come, go with it.
DNA, ultimately, is DNA, regardless of which species come in concrete. May, in some sense, like the letters of a language. The letters of the Western languages \u200b\u200bare essentially the same and are the sequence and order of these letters that determine a specific language. With DNA is the same. Although simply stated so there are only four different letters: C, G, T and A; the computer in different ways emerges all the huge variety we know in this biological planet. Change a single letter of the above and what you get may be radically different. Not only that, it is also the "syntax" and "score" of DNA that regulates how individual genes are expressed. Mother Nature has done this so that the different species of DNA are mixed and remain genetically pure species.
That said, it is possible to mix DNA and have, say, human enzymes to read and translate fly DNA. Of course, you can make the level of individual genes, whereas in more complex systems such as organs would be extremely difficult (not to mention in whole organisms).
The fly better known and studied from a scientific standpoint is the Drosophila melanogaster, also known as fruit flies. The majority of genes (genome) have been characterized, mainly by inducing mutations in them and observing the results. Thus, we have generated a multitude of strange specimens: people with eyes on the antennae, with additional sets of wings or legs instead of antennae. Modifying genes in this small insect, scientists have learned a lot about the structure, organization and function of them. Certain anatomical sections such as wings, head, feet, etc.. develop from gene segments, controlled by homeotic genes called (hox genes, more briefly). Are mutations of these genes hox those involving abnormal replacement of parts of the body by others in the organization to which they belong. Basically, a mixture of hox genes introduced into the body of Dr. Delambre instructions such as "leg of the fly goes here" and "fly's head goes here." This may have some overtones of reality, as the hox genes region, with its 180 nucleotides in flies is remarkably similar to that found in humans.
As therapies gene are advancing and the technology becomes more accessible, we may be able to introduce genes in man with obvious evolutionary advantages (eg, the ability to metabolize cellulose , the most abundant source of carbon in the Earth). At the end of the day, as I said, DNA is DNA and, in principle, the gene fusion is possible. In the future, when better understanding of the regulatory elements of certain genes, in all probability we will find the doors of extraordinary events y. .. might be terrifying. Stay tuned!
Sources:
The Bilogy of Science Fiction Cinema . Mark C. Glassy. McFarland & Company. 2001.
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