Lit. Circle Book: Time, Love, Memory

In Time, Love, Memory, what surprised me the most was the experiment on how mutant fruit flies tend to move toward the light rather than the dark. Ever since Chapter 1, the experiment created by Seymour Benzer has reappeared in almost every chapter. In Benzer’s experiment, he connected two test tubes and put them mouth to mouth. He put one end of the test tube under the light while the other end of the test tube was in the darkness. He would make sure that the test tubes were still and tap the glass in order for the flies to start their movements. After countless of experiments, Benzer concluded that most of the flies moved toward the light. From my observations, the flies in my room like to fly in both dark and light environments. Although fruit flies are different from normal flies, I never thought about how the flies move. Benzer’s experiment was one of the most interesting and surprising experiments to me because I never thought about observing what the flies’ movements were like.

Source: Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner