Transparent fruit flies
Monday, November 26, 2018 - 08:00
in Biology & Nature
The nervous system of an animal can be studied by cutting it up into thin layers—however this inevitably leads to the destruction of the cellular structures in the tissue. Analyzing complex nerve connections is then hardly possible. The far more elegant method is the so called optical "clearing" of the various tissues using chemical processes that make the animal transparent. Interesting structures in the tissue may then be selectively marked and analyzed.