Fly Brain Lab

A puzzle game played on a real fruit fly brain. The 6,486 neurons and 242,120 synaptic connections inside this fly are not invented. They come from MaleCNS v1.0, the publicly released whole-brain connectome of an adult male Drosophila melanogaster (HHMI Janelia / Google Research, CC-BY 4.0). HOW IT WORKS Buzz lives on a rotting banana. It smells the fermentation, tastes sugar with its feet (fruit flies really do), grooms itself, and flies a lap now and then. When your finger comes close, one line called the escape neuron fires, and it bolts. Open the lab and you can silence that line. Poke the fly again — it doesn't move. You just did what neuroscientists do for a living. TEN PUZZLES Each level gives you a goal and the real wiring diagram: • Make it take five pokes without fleeing • Keep it on the banana without a single bite • Let it smell the food but never reach it — without touching…