Superfly: A History of Genetics

Superfly serves up a history of the use and abuse of the common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), a modest little bug that just happens to be the star of modern genetics. The fruit fly's frantic two-week breeding cycle--observed night and day in hundreds of labs around the world--make it the ultimate “fast and cheap” lab specimen, and its DNA makeup is remarkably (disturbingly?) similar to that of humans--at least two-thirds, anyway, which is plenty enough for geneticists to glean important insights. Superfly traces the history of the fruit fly's role in contemporary genetics, from the groundbreaking work of Thomas Morgan at Columbia University during the early part of the century (revealed here in quasi “mad-scientist”-style dramatizations) to subsequent discoveries (ranging from the identification of master control genes to the mapping of the human genome) limned in interviews with today's leading geneticists. Given that genetic research relies heavily on mutations, the fruit fly has been subjected to abuse that would put a Third World dictator to shame--sleep deprivation, injections with nasty toxins, x-rays--in efforts to create a super mutant…or superfly. Which explains why Drosophila is given the horror-movie treatment here: one of the geneticists interviewed sports sunglasses and is shot at low, skewed angles, and the viewer is treated to 3-D animation, specialized photography, a tension-building soundtrack, and extreme close-ups of twitchy limbs and crosshatched eyeballs that rival the prismatic fly's-eye climax of 1958's The Fly. Fun and informative, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (A. Cantú)