As most of us are aware, today's primary school, high school and undergraduate biology programs are struggling to incorporate even a fraction of the `molecular revolution' of biological knowledge and technologies that surround us. In the first term alone, life science and biology classes of the new millennia routinely cover condensed versions of the year-long classes taught in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Teachers no longer have the luxury of spending half a year presenting Mendel and his peas.
As many of us appreciate, fruit flies offer a superb means to illustrate basic Mendelian principles to kids as young as primary school age. Among model organisms used in research, the fruit fly is one of the most thoroughly analyzed, and it is appreciated by geneticists, neurobiologists and developmental biologists alike. In addition, flies are a practical choice of school and undergraduate teachers because of their relative ease of handling,their small...