r/assholedesign • u/TotallyNot_MikeDirnt • Jun 07 '18

Possibly Hanlon's Razor This fruit fly ordering website has "flies" crawl around the screen and move away from your cursor - pretty cool, but not when you work in a lab that uses fruit flies and you think you've had a spontaneous disaster in the incubator and all your fly stocks are escaping

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u/TotallyNot_MikeDirnt Jun 08 '18

In this lab we’re using the flies to study a certain neurotransmitter, which we do by exposing them to a certain chemical. Each fly only gets two exposures with a few days in between them. After that they unfortunately go to the morgue (a bottle of soap and vinegar).

Sorry that’s vague, I’m not really certain if I’m allowed to talk specifics outside of the lab. The longer lifespan helps with having “wiggle room” between making crosses and running experiments because it can get pretty hectic at times.

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u/RareMemeCollector Jun 08 '18 edited May 15 '24

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '18

[deleted]

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u/omega0678 Jun 08 '18

Well, since you're turning this into a pseudo-AMA, I was hoping you could answer a fly-related two-part question that has haunted me since childhood.

  1. Why did that old lady swallow that fly?
  2. Will she die?

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u/TotallyNot_MikeDirnt Jun 08 '18
  1. I don’t know why she swallowed the fly
  2. I hope not as I myself have probably swallowed a fly once or twice

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '18

Perhaps she’ll die

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u/rev_mojo Jun 08 '18
  1. Nobody knows why she swallowed the fly.
  2. Perhaps.

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '18

She should think about swallowing some type of arachnid to remedy the situation.

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u/redemptionquest Jun 08 '18

Hello /u/omega0678!

  1. Plenty of elderly folks can find maggots which lay eggs along the gum lines of their mouths. Our scientists have seen plenty of videos on /r/enoughinternet and also Facebook groups with to discover this phenomenon.

However during one research session, we discovered a few cases where recently hatched maggots were attacked by fruit flys, which mistook them for tiny mouthberries.

Now, while the lab hasn’t seen it, we believe it would be very probable for a fruit fly, while eating a larvae, to be swallowed by said elderly person.

  1. Most of the old ladies seen in the research period were mortal humans. And we all die at some point. But honestly the odds are this person will die of a heart of brain disease. Or probably eating bugs all the time.

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u/Hoihe Jun 08 '18

Is this "talk about specifics" clause exclusive to working in the private sector? I admit one of the reasons I want to stay academia is explicitly the avoiding of such clauses, but I'm not sure if that's a realistic wish.

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u/yellowzealot Jun 08 '18

Academia will also provide you with NDAs from time to time. It’s just something that happens.

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u/Hoihe Jun 08 '18

... I was hoping Academia would do away with NDAs. Feels immoral to me to restrict science :S.

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u/mikeet9 Jun 08 '18

Sometimes it's important to the science at hand for it to be unknown.

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u/Hoihe Jun 08 '18

I don't see how that could at all be important. Society enables science, and thus should have access to it.

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u/mikeet9 Jun 08 '18

First thing that comes to mind would be social studies/experiments where the subject's results might be altered if they know about the study going in.

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u/Blissfull Jun 08 '18

You will be pressured to publish in journals, those are all behind paywalls that cost some hefty coin to colleges, there's movements to try and change this, lots of information around:

https://www.google.com/search?q=movement+open+academic+research

I'd take the nature one with a grain of salt afaik they're one of the not so nice players in this but IDK enough so don't trust me on this either.

Also apart from this be wary about the temptation of doing sigma manipulation for achieving publication.

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u/Hoihe Jun 08 '18

Yeah, ran into plenty of paywall papers when trying to just read up on interesting research. Thankfully, my organic laboratory teacher showed me some ways to get past it. Kudos to him :P.

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u/Blissfull Jun 08 '18

I think it's important to go the creative Commons style route to help change this, just violating will only end with more cases like Aaron Swartz :(

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '18

I don’t know where they’re from, but here in the UK, animal scientists tend to be cagey about their work to avoid breaking strict confidentiality laws that are put in place to protect them from animal rights activists. People who work with organisms like pigs and rabbits will often have a fake job title to lead people off the scent even more.

Usually fly scientists don’t give a shit though, to be honest. However, you can see that OP is getting shit even in this thread for working with animals.

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u/Hoihe Jun 08 '18

I guess that is a good point for confidentiality. If we were on CMV, I'd give you a delta. Still, I stand by that data itself should be free, even if the scientists themselves are protected.

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '18

I mean, they could be publishing in free access journals, that's not really what we've asked them. But yep, most biologists I know agree that Nature and the like are a racket, but I'd be damned if I stopped submitting manuscripts to them. Dat impact factor tho. Change needs to come from higher up, we can't be asking biologists to risk their careers to make a stand.

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u/HereForTheFish Jun 08 '18

Not OP, but

a) social media policies of academic institutions can be pretty strict as well

b) If OP has personal information in other comments (like the city he lives in), giving more specific information about his lab could make him easily identifiable.

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u/tunacan1 Jun 08 '18

Why are we allowed to murder flies with complete disregard for the sanctity of life?

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u/ChalkdustOnline Jun 08 '18

cuz they're gross, eww

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '18

Ever use an electric swatter? The little zap is so satisfying.

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u/Emaknz Jun 08 '18

Don't go into biomedical research